On Improving the Performance of Silty Soil by Treating with Ferrochrome Slag: An Experimental Study

Abstract

Establishing synergy between industrial slags and soils to apply as a ground improvement technique has been one of the prime focuses for geotechnical engineering researchers. This solves the issue of scarcity of “good soil” for construction of embankments and aids to maintaining the sustainable practices of the industries producing slags. In this context, this study analyses the performance of ferrochrome slag as additive in silty soil (ML). The ferrochrome slag passed through 4.75 mm and retained in 1.0 mm IS sieves is used and mixed with the silty soil in different ratios by weight (10:90) to (60:40), to find out the most suitable ratio of mixture. Therefore, the present study describes series of triaxial (Unconsolidated Undrained) and CBR tests on soil and slag individually, and mixture of both by different weight ratios as mentioned before. This exercise demonstrates the fact that, the mixture of soil and ferrochrome slag by ratio 50:50 shows maximum overall improvement of strength. Furthermore, it has been observed that the CBR value of the mixture illustrates an increment of about 500% and the result of the triaxial test of the mixture demonstrates an enhancement of shear strength by 16.5% of the mixture.