American Journal of Civil Engineering

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Experimental Performance Studies on the Improved Expansive Subgrade Soil Formation by Using Mechanical Stabilization with Natural Gravel Around Jimma Quarry Sites

Received: Sep. 22, 2018    Accepted: Nov. 02, 2018    Published: Nov. 28, 2018
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Abstract

Expansive soil refers to a particular type of soils – almost clayey soils in property - that expand as they absorb water and shrink when they dry out. The process of swelling generates pressures that can cause lifting, or heaving of structures whilst shrinkage process can cause differential settlement on civil structure. A large number of buildings and roads are placed on such type of soil and exposed to the danger from this swelling and shrinkage processes. In order to avoid the previous mentioned risk from the expansive soil, a technique of soil stabilization should be made for this type of soil to enhance some of its properties. In this study, the experimental investigations have been made to study the suitability of natural gravel from jiren quarry site to improve properties of expansive soil. The important parameters to be determine the geo-technical properties such as Specific gravity, Liquid limit, Plastic limit, Plasticity index, dry density and California Bearing (CBR) ratio values. According to ERA 2002 this type of soils is poor for subgrade for road construction. In order to realize the desired objective, a purposive sampling technique which is non –probability method was adopted in order to collect disturbed soil samples at depth of 1.5m and natural gravel from jiren quarry site used for the preparation of different laboratory tests. The laboratory work involved sieve analysis along with consistence test to classify the soil sample. The preliminary investigation of the soil shows that it belongs to A-7-5 class of soil in AASHTO and CH in USCS soil classification system. Soils under this class are generally of poor for subgrade road construction. Atterberg limits, compaction and CBR tests were used to evaluate properties of stabilized soil. The soil was stabilized with natural gravel in stepped concentration of 5%, 10%, 15%, 20% and 25% by dry weight of the soil. Analysis of the results shows the addition of natural gravel improve the geotechnical properties of the expansive black cotton soil. The addition of natural gravel reduces plasticity index, swelling and OMC with an increase in MDD and CBR with all increased natural gravel contents. The addition of 20% and 25% of natural gravel established an increased CBR value by 670% and 958% respectively, indicating the subgrade class falling under S4 and S5 respectively. From this study it was found out that natural gravel stabilized with soil do meet the minimum requirement of ERA pavement manual specification for use as a sub-grade material in road construction.

DOI 10.11648/j.ajce.20180605.13
Published in American Journal of Civil Engineering ( Volume 6, Issue 5, September 2018 )
Page(s) 154-161
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Expansive Soil, Stabilization, Swelling, Shrinkage, Natural Gravel, Subgrade, CBR Vale

References
[1] Abebe WoldeGiorgis, 2017. Ethiopia: The Construction Industry in Bolstering Growth. www.allafrica.com , 23 February 2017.
[2] Fekerte Arega, Freek van der Meer and Harald van der Werff, 2009, Prediction of Volumetric Shrinkage in Expansive Soils (Role of Remote Sensing), Intechopen.com, Advances in Geoscience and Remote Sensing.
[3] Tekeste Gebrehiwot, 2003, Ameliorated Design and Construction Techniques of Pavements on Expansive Soils, MSc Thesis, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia.
[4] John R. Wise W. and Ronald Hudson, July 1971. An examination of expansive clay problems in texas. Research Report Number 118-5.
[5] Ethiopian Roads Authority. (2011) “Site investigation manual”.
[6] Catherine May Caunce, 2010. Effective Road Pavement Design for Expansive Soils in Ipswich. Research Project.
[7] Fiker Alebachew, 2005, Pavement Distresses on Addis Ababa City Arterial Roads, Causes and Maintenance Options, MSc Thesis, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia.
[8] Ethiopian Roads Authority, 2013, Pavement Design manual, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
[9] American society for testing and materials (1991). Annual Book of ASTM Standards, Vol. 04.08. Philadelphia, Pa.
[10] Braja M. Das, 2002 SOIL MECHANICS LABORATORY MANUAL Sixth Edition.
[11] Muni Budhu, 2005. Soil Mechanics fundamentals, USA.
[12] Bantayehu Uba Uge , 2017, International Journal of Scientific Research Engineering & Technology.
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    Anteneh Geremew, Basha Fayissa. (2018). Experimental Performance Studies on the Improved Expansive Subgrade Soil Formation by Using Mechanical Stabilization with Natural Gravel Around Jimma Quarry Sites. American Journal of Civil Engineering, 6(5), 154-161. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajce.20180605.13

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    ACS Style

    Anteneh Geremew; Basha Fayissa. Experimental Performance Studies on the Improved Expansive Subgrade Soil Formation by Using Mechanical Stabilization with Natural Gravel Around Jimma Quarry Sites. Am. J. Civ. Eng. 2018, 6(5), 154-161. doi: 10.11648/j.ajce.20180605.13

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    AMA Style

    Anteneh Geremew, Basha Fayissa. Experimental Performance Studies on the Improved Expansive Subgrade Soil Formation by Using Mechanical Stabilization with Natural Gravel Around Jimma Quarry Sites. Am J Civ Eng. 2018;6(5):154-161. doi: 10.11648/j.ajce.20180605.13

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ajce.20180605.13,
      author = {Anteneh Geremew and Basha Fayissa},
      title = {Experimental Performance Studies on the Improved Expansive Subgrade Soil Formation by Using Mechanical Stabilization with Natural Gravel Around Jimma Quarry Sites},
      journal = {American Journal of Civil Engineering},
      volume = {6},
      number = {5},
      pages = {154-161},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ajce.20180605.13},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajce.20180605.13},
      eprint = {https://download.sciencepg.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ajce.20180605.13},
      abstract = {Expansive soil refers to a particular type of soils – almost clayey soils in property - that expand as they absorb water and shrink when they dry out. The process of swelling generates pressures that can cause lifting, or heaving of structures whilst shrinkage process can cause differential settlement on civil structure. A large number of buildings and roads are placed on such type of soil and exposed to the danger from this swelling and shrinkage processes. In order to avoid the previous mentioned risk from the expansive soil, a technique of soil stabilization should be made for this type of soil to enhance some of its properties. In this study, the experimental investigations have been made to study the suitability of natural gravel from jiren quarry site to improve properties of expansive soil. The important parameters to be determine the geo-technical properties such as Specific gravity, Liquid limit, Plastic limit, Plasticity index, dry density and California Bearing (CBR) ratio values. According to ERA 2002 this type of soils is poor for subgrade for road construction. In order to realize the desired objective, a purposive sampling technique which is non –probability method was adopted in order to collect disturbed soil samples at depth of 1.5m and natural gravel from jiren quarry site used for the preparation of different laboratory tests. The laboratory work involved sieve analysis along with consistence test to classify the soil sample. The preliminary investigation of the soil shows that it belongs to A-7-5 class of soil in AASHTO and CH in USCS soil classification system. Soils under this class are generally of poor for subgrade road construction. Atterberg limits, compaction and CBR tests were used to evaluate properties of stabilized soil. The soil was stabilized with natural gravel in stepped concentration of 5%, 10%, 15%, 20% and 25% by dry weight of the soil. Analysis of the results shows the addition of natural gravel improve the geotechnical properties of the expansive black cotton soil. The addition of natural gravel reduces plasticity index, swelling and OMC with an increase in MDD and CBR with all increased natural gravel contents. The addition of 20% and 25% of natural gravel established an increased CBR value by 670% and 958% respectively, indicating the subgrade class falling under S4 and S5 respectively. From this study it was found out that natural gravel stabilized with soil do meet the minimum requirement of ERA pavement manual specification for use as a sub-grade material in road construction.},
     year = {2018}
    }
    

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  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - Experimental Performance Studies on the Improved Expansive Subgrade Soil Formation by Using Mechanical Stabilization with Natural Gravel Around Jimma Quarry Sites
    AU  - Anteneh Geremew
    AU  - Basha Fayissa
    Y1  - 2018/11/28
    PY  - 2018
    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajce.20180605.13
    DO  - 10.11648/j.ajce.20180605.13
    T2  - American Journal of Civil Engineering
    JF  - American Journal of Civil Engineering
    JO  - American Journal of Civil Engineering
    SP  - 154
    EP  - 161
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2330-8737
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajce.20180605.13
    AB  - Expansive soil refers to a particular type of soils – almost clayey soils in property - that expand as they absorb water and shrink when they dry out. The process of swelling generates pressures that can cause lifting, or heaving of structures whilst shrinkage process can cause differential settlement on civil structure. A large number of buildings and roads are placed on such type of soil and exposed to the danger from this swelling and shrinkage processes. In order to avoid the previous mentioned risk from the expansive soil, a technique of soil stabilization should be made for this type of soil to enhance some of its properties. In this study, the experimental investigations have been made to study the suitability of natural gravel from jiren quarry site to improve properties of expansive soil. The important parameters to be determine the geo-technical properties such as Specific gravity, Liquid limit, Plastic limit, Plasticity index, dry density and California Bearing (CBR) ratio values. According to ERA 2002 this type of soils is poor for subgrade for road construction. In order to realize the desired objective, a purposive sampling technique which is non –probability method was adopted in order to collect disturbed soil samples at depth of 1.5m and natural gravel from jiren quarry site used for the preparation of different laboratory tests. The laboratory work involved sieve analysis along with consistence test to classify the soil sample. The preliminary investigation of the soil shows that it belongs to A-7-5 class of soil in AASHTO and CH in USCS soil classification system. Soils under this class are generally of poor for subgrade road construction. Atterberg limits, compaction and CBR tests were used to evaluate properties of stabilized soil. The soil was stabilized with natural gravel in stepped concentration of 5%, 10%, 15%, 20% and 25% by dry weight of the soil. Analysis of the results shows the addition of natural gravel improve the geotechnical properties of the expansive black cotton soil. The addition of natural gravel reduces plasticity index, swelling and OMC with an increase in MDD and CBR with all increased natural gravel contents. The addition of 20% and 25% of natural gravel established an increased CBR value by 670% and 958% respectively, indicating the subgrade class falling under S4 and S5 respectively. From this study it was found out that natural gravel stabilized with soil do meet the minimum requirement of ERA pavement manual specification for use as a sub-grade material in road construction.
    VL  - 6
    IS  - 5
    ER  - 

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Author Information
  • Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Jimma University, Institute of Technology, Jimma, Ethiopia

  • Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Jimma University, Institute of Technology, Jimma, Ethiopia

  • Section