Study of Characteristics of Expansive Soil Stabilized with Tire Derived Aggregate and Fish Scale Powder

For better construction, the soil needs to have higher bearing capacity and stability, but the expansive soil is problematic in nature, and hence, it has less bearing strength for safe construction, which requires some form of soil stabilization to improve the soil properties. The infrastructure will suffer serious damage if it is not stabilised, resulting in poor performance. Numerous investigations have been performed throughout the years to assess the performance of soil stabilisation technology and construction methods. The engineering characteristics of expansive soil are improved by stabilising the soil, such as bearing capacity and strength, and compaction characteristics by the addition of conventional additives. For this study, Tire Derived Aggregate (TDA) and Fish Scale Powder (FSP) as solid waste have been used for soil modification. This work investigates the effects of TDA and FSP with various percentages on the compaction and strength characteristics of expansive soil. Experiments were conducted, such as Standard Proctor compaction and Unconfined Compressive Strength (UCS). Test results on soil with TDA (3%, 6%, 9%, 12%, and 15%) showed there is an increase of 212% in UCS with the addition of 9% TDA as compared to untreated soil. To this optimum amount of 9% TDA mix, FSP (4%, 8%, 12%, 16%, 20%) is added for various cure duration and there is a 155% increase in UCS for 8% addition of FSP for 14 days and 8% addition of FSP for 7 days of curing as compared to untreated soil. The UCS is decreased with an increased curing period and FSP content. Thus, the optimum amount of FSP is found to be 8% from the UCS test results. Therefore, it shows that TDA is lightweight, which increases the strength due to higher toughness and better gradation of soil-TDA mixes. The expansive soil had shown improvement in strength, making it a cost-effective and sustainable practice.