Swelling behaviour of expansive soils randomly mixed with recycled geobeads inclusion

Abstract

Expansive soils exhibit greater volume change with variation in moisture content. In this study, an attempt has been made to reuse the waste expanded polystyrene (EPS) beads as an environmentally friendly additive to mitigate the swelling potential. The swelling behaviour of expansive soil was examined with and without EPS geobeads inclusions. Several swell-compression tests were carried out on one-dimensional large consolidation apparatus (LCA) which can accommodate the California bearing ratio (CBR) mould. The swelling characteristics of remoulded soil specimens were evaluated with the addition of 0%, 0.25%, 0.5%, 0.75% and 1% geobeads content (gc) by the dry weight of the soil. The test result shows that the increase in gc from 0.25 to 1%, there is a gradual decrease in the vertical swelling potential (i.e. percent swell and swelling pressure). A higher recycled gc inclusion up to 1% could be preferable to reduce maximum swelling potential, where compressional deformations are not of primary concern.