Stabilization of Lime Treated Black Cotton Soil with Bamboo Fibre

Construction of pavement subgrades for roads and railways on black cotton soil (BC soil) is highly risky on geo-technical grounds because such soil is susceptible to differential settlements, poor shear strength and high compressibility. Chemical stabilization is one of the oldest methods of stabilization of problematic soil. In recent days, it has been investigated that addition of fibers will improve the ductility behavior of the soil there by reducing the development of crack during shrinkage. This project describes the compaction and strength behavior of Lime treated black cotton soil (BC soil) reinforced with bamboo fibers. The various percentage of lime as 2%, 4%, 6% and 8% was used to find out the optimum value of lime. Bamboo fiber has been randomly included into the lime treated soil at four different percentages of fiber content, i.e. 0.5%, 1% 1.5%, and 2% (by weight of soil). The tests which were carried out are Atterberg’s Limits, Modified compaction test, California bearing ratio test and unconfined compression test. The test result indicates that strength properties of optimum combination of BC soil-lime specimens reinforced with bamboo fibers is appreciably better than untreated BC soil. And also the strength of the mixed soil increases with increase in days. And Cyclic Plate Load tests were carried out for the optimum percentage obtained from the above test results and the results were analyzed for the suitability of subgrade under certain loads in a model test tanks under laboratory conditions