Effect of calcium enriched waste on physiochemical properties of stabilized subgrade soil

Abstract

Generation of waste from the various industries causes harmful impact to environment if there has no safe management for their disposal or reuse. The construction industries have ability to reuse or utilize different types of solid wastes. The waste from poultry farms in the form of eggshell also cause problems to the environment and need some utilization. The eggshell powder (ESP) is enriched with natural lime; therefore, it can be used for soil stabilization. In the present paper, eggshell powder was used along with sodium chloride (NaCl) and polypropylene fiber (PPF) to study their influence on physicochemical properties of soil. The soil samples were subjected to ten cycles of freeze-thaw before examining the pH of respective sample. Eggshell powder (3%, 6% and 9%), sodium chloride (2%, 4% and 6%) and polypropylene fiber (0.05%, 0.1% and 0.15%) were used and design of experiments was developed using Taguchi technique. Results showed that inclusion of these materials had significant effect on the pH and unconfined compressive strength of subjected soil against harsh environmental conditions, although the relation between pH and UCS was found non-linear.