Characteristics study on sub grade soil blended with ground granulated blast furnace slag

Abstract

Construction field is booming with high standard innovative technologies. Unfortunately, a massive percentage of a downgrade is noticed afresh, due to the instability of soil. More concern is given by geotechnical engineer on expansive soils, as it causes significant hazards to foundations due to the volume change nature of the soil. To ensure adequate sub grade stability, soil stabilization is one of the proactive methods to rectify the instability problems and in the account of this, to advocate sustainability, admixtures of more rewarding and less impactful to nature is advisory. Thus in support of this, a thorough experimental study was executed in this work to figure out the potential industrial waste Ground Granulated Blast furnace Slag (GGBS) as a stabilizing agent. In order to assess the sub grade strength attainment rate, California Bearing Ratio (CBR) test was conducted on soil treated with GGBS (2.5%, 5%, 7.5%, and 10%) at different curing periods of 3, 7, and 14 days. Free Swell Test was conducted to elucidate the difference in swelling behavior of treated soil with admixtures. The test results showed the uptrend in CBR value as well as a decrement in swell percentage to a higher extent with prolonged curing and various dosages of admixture content thus gave a stamp of approval to the stabilization mechanism involving pozzolanic reactions. Thus this paper highlights the optimized exploitation of bounded resources by restraining the irrelevant propagation of waste.