Improvement in the Properties of Red Soil Using Granulated Blast Furnace Slag

Abstract

In the current study, an attempt is made to improve the geotechnical properties of red soil using industrial by-product: Granulated-Blast Furnace Slag (GBFS). Red soil is distributed over large part of the peninsular region in India. Red soil could be effectively stabilized to yield better strength characteristics. GBFS is the primary by-product of the iron and steel industry. Red soil was replaced with varying percentages of admixture (GBFS) by dry weight of soil (5, 10, 15, 20 and 30%). Basic geotechnical properties like specific gravity, Atterberg limits, compaction, unconfined compressive strength (UCS) and triaxial compression test, were performed on the red soil as well as on the mixes as per Indian Standard Codal provisions. From the UCS test results, the optimum percentage of replacement of 15% was found. It was observed that on replacement with admixtures, the liquid limit was found to decrease which reduces the compressibility. The presence of CaO in GBFS has improved the shear strength and shear strength parameters of soil. Thus utilization of granular industrial by-product (GBFS) has proven beneficial in geotechnical structures. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.