Study on strength and volume change behavior of expansive soil using non-traditional (bio-enzyme) and traditional (lime and bagasse ash) stabilizers

Abstract

Roads are vital for the economic growth of a country. Keeping balance between performance and cost of the roads and at the same time fulfilling the environmental regulations is becoming a challenge for engineers to design road with poor engineering properties of soils like expansive soils. Present research work is focused on the study on strength and volume change behavior of soft soil using non-traditional stabilizer bio-enzyme and traditional stabilizers lime and bagasse ash. Recently, bio-enzymes have emerged as a new agent for soil stabilization. These enzymes have been proven to be effective, economical, and environmentally friendly. One such bio-enzyme, terrazyme, is selected to study its effect of Free Swell Index (FSI) of the soil with different dosages of bio-enzyme (i.e., 0, 100, 200, and 300 ml/cum of soil). Further, the effect of combination of traditional stabilizer like lime and bagasse ash with bio-enzyme is carried out. The study shows that the optimum dosage of stabilizers (i.e., terrazyme 300 ml/cum + bagasse ash 3% + lime 3%) gave significant increase in CBR value and significantly decreased in FSI values. Based on the laboratory tests, it can be concluded that the combination of additives can be considered as a potential stabilizers for expansive soils. © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd 2019.