Strength Improvement of Laterite Soil Mixed with Hydrated Lime and Untreated Textile Effluent as an Admixture for Pavement Construction

Abstract

This paper present a laboratory study to investigate the viability of utilizing textile effluent as an admixture on the strength characteristics of lime treated laterite soil. The soil used for this investigation is classified as A-7-6(12) in accordance with AASHTO soil classification system and CL in accordance with USCS. This group of soils is typically very poor for engineering use. Hydrated lime/textile effluent (TE) blend in stepped content of 0, 2, 4, 6 and 8% lime with 0, 25, 50, 75 and 100% TE concentration each by dry weight of soil was used to treat the soil. Compaction was carried out using British Standard Light (BSL) and the three criteria for the evaluation of strength (i.e. UCS, CBR and Durability) were considered. The UCS values of specimens treated with 6% lime/100% TE, 8% lime/ 25% TE and 4% lime/ 75% TE concentration increased from 335, 400 and 573kN/m2 for the natural soil to 670.63, 991.00 and 1531.91kN/m2 when cured for 7, 14 and 28 days respectively. The CBR values of 12.68 and 5.76% of the natural soil for unsoaked and soaked conditions increased to peak values of 56.68 and 49.71% at 6% lime/ 50% TE treatment, while the durability in terms of resistance to loss in strength increased from 9.36% for the natural soil to 71.77%. The strength and durability values also increased with curing ages, thus indicating that the blend has the potentials for timedependent increase in strength due to utilization of this Industrial waste and will help reduce the quantity of lime required for construction purposes