A project on effect of waste plastic bottles strips in soil improvement

1. A project report on effect of waste plastic
bottles strips in soil improvement
Deepak Kumar (19101155012)
Shivam Kumar (19101155016)
Ankit Kr Aryan (19101155037)
Alok Raj (19101155021)
Under the Supervision of
Prof. Suket Kumar (Assistant Professor)
Department of Civil Engineering
Government Engineering College, Buxar
Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Award of degree of
Bachelor of Technology
in
Civil Engineering
By

2. Contents
1 2 3 4 5
Introduction Objective Literature
Review
Test & Result Conclussion
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3. Introduction
Plastic products have become an integral part in our daily life as a basic need. It is
produced on a massive scale worldwide and its production crosses 150 million tonnes
per year globally.
Soil stabilization using raw waste plastic bottle strips is an alternative method for
improving subgrade and stability of earth embankments. This new technique of soil
stabilization can be effectively used to meet the challenges of society and to reduce the
quantity of waste plastic that lead to eco-friendly safe environment. Plastic wastes
generally include Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET), High Density Polyethylene (HDPE),
Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE), Poly Vinyl Chloride (PVC), Poly Propylene (PP) and
Polystyrene (PS). In this study, PET plastic bottle strips are used to improve the
engineering Properties of soil.
3

4. 4
Process of using plastic bottle
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5. Objective
➢ To increase the density and California Bearing Ratio (CBR) of soil using plastic as an admixture.
➢ To provide an alternative for the disposal of plastic waste.
➢ To provide an economical solution for soil stabilization using plastic waste.
➢ To determine the optimum plastic content to be used.
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6. Literature Review
Vidal (1969)
Vidal had reduced to the danger of
slope stability, increase bearing
capacity and reduce the lateral
deformation by reinforcing the
tensile resisting materials (Geo-
synthetics etc.) into the weak
soils.
Dutta and Rao (2004)
He added combination of different
waste plastic materials to the
plane soil and coarse granular
materials. As a result, Khabiri
Mahammad (2011) observed that,
tensile and compressive strengths
of soils improved significantly.
Khabiri Mahammad
(2011)
They had applied a new tensile
force resisting material called Low
Density Polyethylene (LDPE)
plastic strips and performed
conventional drained triaxial
compression tests mixing LDPE
strips with sandy soil.
While performing constructions on weak soils, it is very common practice to use a variety of ground improvement techniques
(such as cement, lime etc.) to address the poor shear strength and bearing capacity properties of the subgrade or foundation
soil. Later over the years, new advanced technology has been introduced by
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7. Literature Review
Chouksey and Babu (2011)
Introduced a new form of plastic waste i.e. drinking water
bottles to investigate the effect of the bottle strips on
consolidation characteristics. A series of both unconfined
compression test (UCC) and consolidated undrained (CU)
triaxial tests showed that there is benefit of increasing the
engineering strength of the soil and also observed that
there is significant reduction in the compressibility
parameters. But they did not consider the particular
proportions of bottle strips so that the behavior of these
strips could be identified with change in percentage of
strips. Further to understand the behavior of plastic strips
as soil reinforcement.
Chebet and Kalumba (2014)
Considered HDPE plastic strips obtained from shopping
bags and reinforced them to two kind of sandy soils called
Klipheuwel and Cape Flat sands. The investigators
considered the stripperforations with different diameters as
reinforcement to sandy soils. Series of direct shear tests
were performed on the two type of sands reinforced with
HDPE strips of concentrations i.e. 0.1–0.3% by weight.
They also considered the effect of variation in the strip size
having lengths from 15 to 45 mm and strip widths from 6
mm to 18 mm.
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8. Scope of work
8
The scope of present work includes addition of plastic bottle strips to the locally available soils to enhance the
engineering properties. The work presented in this paper aims to investigate the improvement of soil properties such as
shear strength, maximum dry density(MDD) and CBR values by adding strips cut from plastic bottles. A series of
laboratory tests are conducted on both virgin soils as well as on plastic reinforced soil to compare the improvement of
soil properties. List of experiments conducted in laboratory as per IS/ASTM Codes are given in Table.
S. no List of experiments List of codes (IS/ASTM)
1 Specific gravity of soil solids IS:2720-Part 3-1980/ASTM D854-14
2 Particle size analysis IS:2720-Part 4-1985/ASTM D6913-04
3 Atterberg limits IS:2720-Part 5-1985/ASTM D4318-05
4 Compaction test (standard proctor test) IS:2720-Part 7-1980/ASTM D698
5 Direct shear test IS:2720-Part 13-1986/ASTM D3080
6 California bearing ratio test IS:2720-Part 16-1987/ASTM D1883
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9. Test Procedure
Liquid Limit (LL) Test Plastic Limit (PL) Test
A small ball of moist plastic soil is
repeatedly remolded and rolled
out into a 1/8th inch (3.18 mm)
thread. The moisture content at
which the thread crumbles before
it is completely rolled out is the
plastic limit.
Shrinkage Limit (SL) Test
A soil pat from the moist soil
sample is molded into a special
shrinkage dish. The dish along
with the soil pat is oven-dried
and weighed and the volume of
the specimen is determined. The
test is described in ASTM D4943.
A portion of the soil sample is
spread in the brass cup of the liquid
limit machine. It is then divided at
the center using the Casagrande
grooving tool. The liquid limit is
reached when the groove closes a
distance of 0.5inches along the
bottom of the groove after 25 blows.
The moisture content is noted. The
test is conducted at varying
moisture content for the same soil
with the number of blows varying
between 15 and 35.
Atterberg Limits Test : The soil samples for each test consist of soil that is able to pass through a No. 40 sieve and is
prepared using standard methods. Moisture is adjusted by adding water and thoroughly mixing it. The sample is allowed
to condition for at least 16 hours.
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10. Atterberg Limits Test
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11. 2. Compaction Test ➢ From compaction test, water content-dry density relationship of soil with
varying percentages (2, 4, 6 and 8%) of plastic strips is obtained. A series
of Standard Proctor Tests are conducted on reinforced plastic soil as per
(IS-2720 Part-VII) Procedure. First, the amount of plastic strips (Wp) needed
to be mixed in given natural soil (Wd = 2500 gm) is calculated for
particular percentage of plastic strips (a) as given by the Eq. The cut plastic
strips thus obtained are added to natural soil after making dry soil partially
wet soil by adding sufficient amount of water to ensure that the soil
samples are approximately uniform and plastic paste could be formed.
Strips and soil are mixed thoroughly until mix becomes uniform and
homogeneous approximately. As per Standard Proctor Test procedure,
tests are performed for all soil specimens containing different percentage
of plastic strips and with different lengths of strips.
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12. 12
➢ A series of un-soaked California bearing ratio Tests are
performed on reinforced soil with varying plastic percentages of
2, 4, 6 and 8% respectively for plastic strip size of (15 mm x 25
mm) as per IS2720 Part 16 procedure for light static compaction.
At first, plastic strips are blended with 5 kg of soil, and then
mixed thoroughly until homogeneous mix is obtained. Load
required for penetrating through the soil sample up to 10 mm
penetration depths is noted
➢ California Bearing Ratio, CBR = (Load / Standard Load) * 100
3. California Bearing Ratio
(CBR) Test

13. Methodology
➢ Natural Soil
In this section, the results for various tests such as standard proctor tests, Atterberg limit tests and CBR tests performed on
natural soil are presented. The results for properties of natural soil obtained from these experiments results are shown in
Table .
• Index and engineering properties of natural/virgin soil without plastic strips.
S. no Property of natural soil Value
1 Specific gravity (Gs) 2.62
2 Atterberg limits Liquid limit (LL)
Plastic limit (PL)
Plasticity index (PI)
68.5%
33.3%
35.2%
3 Particle size distribution Gravel (20–4.75 mm)
Sand (4.75–0.075 mm)
Silt (0.075–0.002 mm)
Clay ( < 0.002 mm)
0%
21.4%
57.2%
22.4%
4 California Bearing Ratio Test, CBR 1.0%
5 Compaction properties Optimum Moisture Content, OMC
Maximum Dry Density, MDD
20.5%
1.62 gm/cc
6 Shear strength parameters Cohesion (C)
Angle of internal friction
19 kN/m2
23.20
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14. The plastic which was collected from used plastic chairs are collected and are made into different strips. Plastic strips with a density about
0.42 gm/cc are added to the Natural Soil in percentages of 2%, 4%, 6% and 8% the modified proctor test has been conducted on the sample
and graphs obtained are shown below in Figures 1 & 4
1.68
1.72
1.75
1.7
1.66
1.65
1.66
1.67
1.68
1.69
1.7
1.71
1.72
1.73
1.74
1.75
1.76
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Dry
Density
Moisture Content
Moisture Content Vs Dry Density
1.68
1.75
1.81
1.75
1.68
1.66
1.68
1.7
1.72
1.74
1.76
1.78
1.8
1.82
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Dry
Density
Moisture Content
Moisture Content Vs Dry Density
Fig. 1. Soil with 2% plastic
OMC : 19%
MDD : 1.75 gm/cc
Fig. 2. Soil with 4% plastic
OMC : 18.5%
MDD : 1.81 gm/cc
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15. 15
1.6
1.68
1.71
1.66
1.57
1.56
1.58
1.6
1.62
1.64
1.66
1.68
1.7
1.72
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Dry
Density
(gm/cc)
Moisture Content (%)
Moisture Content Vs Dry Density
1.55
1.62
1.65
1.58
1.54
1.52
1.54
1.56
1.58
1.6
1.62
1.64
1.66
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Density
(gm/cc)
Moisture Content (%)
Moisture Content Vs Dry Density
Fig. 4. Soil with 8% plastic bottle strips
OMC : 17.4%
MDD : 1.65 gm/cc
Fig. 3. Soil with 8% plastic bottle strips
OMC : 18%
MDD : 1.71 gm/cc
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16. Similarly, California Bearing Ratio (CBR) Test was conducted to obtain the CBR Value on the samples with plastic strips in various
percentages of 2%, 4%, 6% and 8%the results obtained are presented as load vs penetration graphs below in Figures 5 & 8.
California Bearing Ratio, CBR = (Load / Standard Load) * 100
0.5
1
2
2.5
3
4
5
6
8
10
12
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Penetration
(mm)
Load (Kgs)
Load Vs Penetration
0.5
1
2
2.5
3
3.5
44.3
5
6
8
10
12
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
0 50 100 150 200 250
Penetration
(mm
Load (Kgs)
Load Vs Penetration
Fig. 5 Soil with 2% plastic
CBR : 2.02%
Fig. 8 Soil with 4% plastic
CBR : 11.7%
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17. 17
0.5
1
1.74
2
3
4
4.5
6
8
10
12
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Penetration
(mm)
Load (Kgs)
Load Vs Penetration
0.5
1
2
2.5
3
3.5
5
6
8
10
12
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
0 20 40 60 80 100
Penetration
(mm)
Load (Kgs)
Load Vs Penetration
Fig. 6 Soil with 6% plastic bottle strips
CBR 4.80
Fig. 7 Soil with 8% plastic bottle strips
CBR 4.40
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18. 18
➢ CBR can be said as the indirect measure of the strength as soil deformed was shear in nature. From the results, it is
evident that waste plastic increases the CBR value.
➢ There is a major increase in CBR value when the soil is incorporated with Plastic strips and compared to that of soil with
no plastic.
➢ CBR test is performed on the samples with varying percentages of Plastic strips i.e., 2%, 4%, 6% and 8%. In this regard,
the CBR value has been increasing up to 4% plastic content and thereon it started to decrease.
➢ From this, it can be inferred that, 4% plastic content is the OPTIMUM CONTENT of utilization of waste plastic in the soil.
Result and discussion
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19. ➢ Effect of Plastic Content for Strip Size (15 mm x 25 mm)
In this section, detailed results for plastic reinforced soil for different plastic contents (%) of soil for (15 mm x 25 mm) strip size are presented.
A series of compaction and CBR tests are performed and their corresponding tests results are shown in Table.
• Test results of reinforced soil with plastic contents for strip size of (15 mm x 25 mm)
where,
MDD is maximum dry density
OMC is optimum moisture content
CBR is California bearing ratio
S. no Percent of plastic content for strip size (15 x 25) mm MDD (gm/cc) OMC (%) CBR (%)
1 Natural Soil with 2% waste plastic strips 1.75 19.0 2.02
2 Natural Soil with 4% waste plastic strips 1.81 18.5 11.70
3 Natural Soil with 6% waste plastic strips 1.71 18 4.80
4 Natural Soil with 8% waste plastic strips 1.65 17.4 4.40
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20. CONCLUSIONS
➢ In the present study, the improved CBR value of the soil is due to the addition of plastic strips. Plastic can be utilized as one of
the material that can be used as a soil stabilizing agent but the proper proportion of plastic must be there, which helps in
increasing the CBR of the soil.
➢ It can be concluded that CBR percentage goes on increasing up to 4% plastic content in the soil and thereon it decreases with
increase in plastic content. Hence, we can say that 4% plastic content is the optimum content of plastic waste in the soil.
➢ Utilization of plastic products in various forms is enormously increasing day by day. This has an adverse effect in nature and it is
not possible to restrict its uses. In this regard, the disposal of the plastic wastes without causing any ecological hazards has
become a real challenge to the present society. Thus, using plastic as a soil stabilizer is an economical and gainful usage
because there is lack of good quality soil for various constructions
➢ This work serves as a means to meet the challenges of Patna, the capital of Bihar State and also to the whole society by
reducing the amount of plastic waste and producing useful product from nonuseful waste materials leading to the foundation of
sustainable society.
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21. Thank you