1. International Journal of Civil Engineering OF CIVIL ENGINEERING AND
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL and Technology (IJCIET), ISSN 0976 – 6308
(Print), ISSN 0976 – 6316(Online) Volume 5, Issue 1, January (2014), © IAEME
TECHNOLOGY (IJCIET)
ISSN 0976 – 6308 (Print)
ISSN 0976 – 6316(Online)
Volume 5, Issue 1, January (2014), pp. 61-65
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IJCIET
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AN EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION ON STABILIZATION OF MEDIUM
PLASTIC CLAY SOIL WITH BITUMINOUS EMULSION
S. Ramesh Kumar1,
1
Dr. K.V.Krishna Reddy2
Associate Professor, Civil Engg. Department, MVSR Engineering College, Hyderabad, A.P
2
Professor, Civil Engineering Department, MVSR Engineering College, Hyderabad, A.P.
ABSTRACT
In developing countries, the main problem is to provide a complete network of road system
with limited resources available. In this context construction cost can be considerably lowered by
using the locally available materials with suitable stabilization techniques. In this study an attempt is
made to use cationic bituminous emulsion for stabilization of medium plastic clays (CI). The results
indicated that the soil requires pre-treatment with lime at 1% and an emulsion content of 3% yielded
satisfactory results.
Key Words: Soil Stabilization, Cationic Bitumen Emulsion, Medium Plastic Clay Soils.
1. INTRODUCTION
Developing countries with predominantly rural population and an agrarian economy, need
constructing a large network of village roads, market link loads and other minor link roads. With
severe constraints in fund allocation, evolution of economical techniques for stage construction by
stabilizing the various available materials at site assumed importance. Bituminous stabilization is one
of the methods available for soil stabilization, where use of emulsion not only excludes heating and
mixing but at the same time gives stable, crack free layers with less dust under wheel loads.
In this investigation an attempt is made to first decrease the plasticity index of the medium
plastic clay using lime as additive and evaluates the unconfined strength of the modified soil with
cationic bituminous emulsion at various percentages. Attempt has also been made to check the effect
of type of curing.
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2. International Journal of Civil Engineering and Technology (IJCIET), ISSN 0976 – 6308
(Print), ISSN 0976 – 6316(Online) Volume 5, Issue 1, January (2014), © IAEME
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
Sharma and Sharma have reported that in treated clayey soils, the clay lumps may be
individually coated and stuck together by a film of bituminous material, imparting strength due to
increased material plugging the voids between the small clay lumps thus acting as water proofing
agent for the compacted soil bitumen mix.
Kezdi mentioned that the main function of asphalt is to cement the soil particles. Ramanujam
and Jones stated that to avoid problems of fatigue cracking as a result of stiff payment layers in case
of cement stabilization, use of lime/ flyash, emulsion/ cement and foamed bitumen are found
satisfactory. Pual Guyer.J indicated that lime added to clay soils make them friable, thereby
permitting asphalt to be adequately mixed.
Ramanujam and Fernando have concluded that cracking problems have been observed in
pavements stabilized using combinations of cement, lime and flyash, This is believed to be due to
sensitivity of cementitiously bound pavements to vehicle overloading over soils with inadequate
subgrade strength. Bituminous emulsions were found effective to be used to make the pavements
flexible and hence relatively fatigue resistant. Such pavements can tolerate heavy rainfall with only
minor surface damage under traffic and hence is less susceptible to the effects of weather than other
methods of stabilization.
3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 Material Selection
Clay of medium plasticity has been procured from Vanaparthy, a place near to Hyderabad.
Cationic bitumen emulsion as supplied by Hindustan petroleum with a viscosity of 450 at 250C is
procured for experimentation. Hydraulic lime with 95% purity is procured locally. The properties of
the soil and lime are tabulated in Table 1.
Table 1 Properties of clay and lime used for experimentation
S.
No.
1
2
Property
S.
No.
Value
Grain Size Distribution
1.18mm
75 micron
%
99
83
Atterberg Limits
Liquid Limit (%)
Plastic Limit (%)
Plasticity Index
48
25
23
Property
Clay
Compaction properties
Optimum moisture content (%)
Maximum Dry Density (g/cc)
4
UCC (Kg/sq.cm)
2
Sulphate
0.2%
Aluminium Iron and
insoluble matter
1.0%
Arsenic
0.0004%
6
62
0.01%
4
2.9
Chloride
3
17
1.63
Calcium hydroxide
5
3
1
Lead
0.001%
95%

3. International Journal of Civil Engineering and Technology (IJCIET), ISSN 0976 – 6308
(Print), ISSN 0976 – 6316(Online) Volume 5, Issue 1, January (2014), © IAEME
3.2 Decreasing the Plasticity Index of Clay
Since stabilization with asphalt emulsions is recommended on soils with a plasticity index
less than 10, the clay soil considered for experimentation was required to be made friable by addition
of lime. Lime at the rate of 0.5% to 2% was added to study the relative decrease in the plasticity
properties of the CI soil.
3.3 Stabilization with Bituminous Emulsion
Lime treated clay soil with optimum lime content was considered for stabilization with
Bituminous emulsion. Emulsion was added at the rate of 1%, 3%, 5% and 7% to the soil after one
hour of addition of lime. Modified compaction tests were done on the Soil – lime – Bituminous
mixes. Unconfined compressive strength tests were conducted at corresponding optimum moisture
content and maximum dry density to check the improvement in the strength properties of the
stabilized soil.
3.4 Curing of soil samples
Moist and Air Drying of the soil samples was considered to check the improvement in
Unconfined Compressive strength of the final mix.
4. RESULTS AND ANALYSIS
The Plasticity properties of the clay treated with hydraulic lime are as tabulated in Table 2.
With lime content increasing from 0.5 % to 2 % the Plasticity index has decreased to 7 at 1% and
seized to be plastic at 1.5% lime addition.
Table 2 Properties with lime addition
% Lime addition by weight
0%
0.5%
1%
Liquid Limit
48
46
42
Plastic Limit
25
31
35
Plasticity Index
23
15
7
OMC (%)
17
18.8
19
MDD (g/cc)
1.63
1.57
1.54
Property
1.5%
Non –
Plastic
19.2
1.52
Addition of emulsion was considered on the lime treated soil modified with 1.0% lime
content. The properties of the soil-lime mix with emulsion content from 1% to 7% are as depicted in
Table 3. The unconfined compressive strength (UCC) increased to 6.8 kg/sqcm at 3% emulsion
content and decreased on further addition. Figure 1 shows the plot for UCC of emulsion stabilized
lime treated clay soil.
Table 3 Properties of lime treated Soil with Emulsion
Property
% of Bituminous Emulsion to lime treated soil
0%
1%
3%
5%
OMC (%)
19
19.1
19.4
20
MDD (g/cc)
1.56
1.556
1.55
1.53
UCC
5.9
6.35
6.8
6.5
(Kg/Sqcm)
63
7%
21.3
1.50
6.4

4. Unconfined compressive stress (Kg/Sqcm)
International Journal of Civil Engineering and Technology (IJCIET), ISSN 0976 – 6308
(Print), ISSN 0976 – 6316(Online) Volume 5, Issue 1, January (2014), © IAEME
8
7
6
5
4
0% Emulsion
1% Emulsion
3% Emulsion
5% Emulsion
7% Emulsion
3
2
1
0
0
0.01
0.02
0.03
0.04
0.05
0.06
Strain (%)
Figure 1 Unconfined Compressive Strength of Emulsion stabilised Lime treated Clay Soil
The optimal Emulsion content was determined to be 3% to the 1% lime treated CI soil.
Curing of the soil samples was done by wrapping in polythene and placed in wet sand to simulate
wet curing conditions and some of the samples were Air dried. Unconfined Compressive strength
tests were conducted on all the samples at the end of 3 days, 7 days,14 days and 28 days and the
results are as depicted in Figure 2. Results indicated that air drying is more effective than moist
curing. This probably is due to the fact that emulsion requires drying to expel volatiles.
Unconfined Compressive
Strength
10
8
6
Air Drying
4
Moist Curing
2
0
0
10
20
30
No of days of Curing
Figure 2 UCC Vs No. of days of Curing for stabilized CI soil
5. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
At the outset the authors would thank the Head, CED, MVSR Engineering College and
Dr. V.R.Rengaraju for their valuable guidance and encouragement during experimentation.
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5. International Journal of Civil Engineering and Technology (IJCIET), ISSN 0976 – 6308
(Print), ISSN 0976 – 6316(Online) Volume 5, Issue 1, January (2014), © IAEME
6. CONCLUSION
1. CI soil with PI of 23 seized to be plastic at 1.5% lime addition and the plasticity index was
reported to be 7 at 1% lime content.
2. Optimum Cationic Bituminous Emulsion for stabilization of 1% lime treated CI soil was found to
be 3%.
3. Air drying of emulsion stabilized –lime treated CI soils yielded high UCC values in shorter
period when compared to moist curing.
7. REFERENCES
1.
J. Paul Guyer, P.E, “ Introduction to Soil Stabilization in Pavements” Course No: C03-028PDH
2. Kezdi, A. (1979), "Stabilized Earth Roads" Chapter 6. Elsevier Scientific Publisher Company,
Amsterdam.
3. K.V.Krishna Reddy, “Stabilization of Medium Plastic Clays using Industrial Wastes”,
4. International Journal of Civil Engineering & Technology (IJCIET), Volume 4, Issue 3,
2013,pp. 38 - 44, ISSN Print: 0976 – 6308, ISSN Online: 0976 – 6316.
5. K.V.Krishna Reddy, “Benefit Analysis of Subgrade and Surface Improvements in
FlexiblePavements”, International Journal of Civil Engineering & Technology (IJCIET),
Volume 4, Issue 2, 2013, pp. 385 - 392, ISSN Print: 0976 – 6308, ISSN Online: 0976 – 6316.
6. K.V.Krishna Reddy, “Influence of Subgrade Condition on Rutting in Flexible Pavements- an
Experimental Investigation”, International Journal of Civil Engineering & Technology
(IJCIET), Volume 4, Issue 3, 2013, pp. 30 - 37, ISSN Print: 0976 – 6308, ISSN Online: 0976
– 6316.
7. K.V.Krishna Reddy and K.P.Reddy, “Maturity Period and Curing as Important Quality
Control Parameters for Lime Stabilized Clay Subgrades”, International Journal of Civil
Engineering & Technology (IJCIET), Volume 4, Issue 2, 2013, pp. 393 - 401, ISSN
Print:0976 – 6308, ISSN Online: 0976 – 6316.
8. Ramanujam, J M & Fernando, D P (1997).”Foamed Bitumen Stabilisation”. Main Roads
Transport Technology Forum July 1997.
9. Ramanujam, J M & Joned.J.D.(2000), “Characterization of Foamed Bituminous
Stabilization”, Road System and Engineering Technology Forum.
10. Sharma, R.C. and Sharma, S.K., (1985) "Principles, Practice and Design of Highway
Engineering" S. Chand and Company LTD. Ram Nager, New Delhi-11055-India
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