Soft Clay Stabilization with Steel Slag

Steel slag is a waste material generated from steel industry. Millions of tonnes of steel slag are generated in each year throughout the world. Substantial portions of steel slag are accumulated each year due to un-utilization. The accumulation of steel slag not only occupies a huge area of land, but it also pollutes the surface water as well as groundwater. Bulk utilization of steel slag is the need of the hour. Soil stabilization is an area where bulk utilization of steel slag is possible. In this paper, an attempt has been made to utilize the steel slag in improving the geotechnical strength characteristics of soft clayey soil. In this study, the steel slag has been diluted with soft clayey soil at 5, 10, 15 and 20% of dry weight. Sieve analysis, Atterberg’s limits, free swell index (SI), specific gravity, compaction, unconfined compressive strength and triaxial test were conducted on the virgin soil as well as on blended soil. UCS tests were performed at 0, 7, 14 and 28 days of curing. The strength characteristic of the blended soil was found to be improved with the increase in percentage of steel slag and curing period.