Experimental Investigation of Silty Soil Treated with Sodium Lignosulfonate

Soil stabilization refers to the process of changing soil properties to improve strength and durability. There are many techniques for soil stabilization, including compaction, dewatering, and by adding chemicals to the soil. Out of these, chemical stabilization is one of the most effective and popular techniques, which has been practiced successfully in the field. There are several chemical additives such as lime, cement, fly ash, and rice husk. Most recently, lignin is an industrial by-product that has been identified as a chemical additive for stabilization of soil mass. Besides, lignin does not have any adverse effect on the environment. In view of this, the behavior of lignin-stabilized soil has been investigated in the present study. Results obtained from unconfined compressive strength tests indicate that the performance of lignin-stabilized soil increases with increase in percent of lignin content. However, it has been observed that the performance of stabilize soil reduces beyond 3% of lignin content. This is possibly because the soil particles completely get coated with lignin if it increased beyond 3%, thereby mobilizes strength at the surface of two lignin particles, which has lesser bonding strength than the strength mobilized at soil lignin interface. Therefore, it can be stated that the optimum percentage of lignosulfonate giving maximum performance of stabilized soil mass should be about 3% by weight.