Investigating the Use of River Sand in Stabilising Expansive Soils Case Study: Moroto-Nadunget Pavement Section
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Date
2024-04-09
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Abstract
Expansive soils are known for their unpredictable expansion and contraction, low permeability, poor load transfer mechanism, high volume changes with variation in moisture content and high compressibility which renders them unsuitable for construction unless stabilized. Owing to the effect of environmental and physical factors to the efficient performance of the traditional methods of cement and lime such as pH, temperature and presence of sulphates, the research carried out aimed at investigating the physical process of adding an inert material (river sand) to expandible soils to stabilize them, a locally available material within the scope of study. The soil sample was blended with varying proportions of river sand (0%,10%, 20% and 30%). From the tests carried out on the neat soils, the soils were categorized as inorganic clays with high levels of plasticity with reference to the Unified Soil Classification System. Incorporating river sand into the expansive soil, significant improvements in strength, reduction in plasticity index as well as swelling potential were seen. The application of 20% river sand increased the CBR of the neat soils from 8% to 29.1% and the plasticity index from 31.2% to 22.5% which satisfies the Ministry of Works and Transport subgrade (G15 material) specifications requirements. Thus, the mix proportion of 20% river sand and 80% neat soils was considered as the optimum stabilizer content for expansive soils for subgrade.