Evaluation of Plant-Based Additives for Stabilization of Problematic Soils: Preliminary Results

The subject of this paper is to evaluate the emerging sustainable soil improvement techniques by using agricultural plant-based additives for problematic soils and their effectiveness in improving the mechanical and physical properties of the soil. This research focused on expansive black cotton soil, mostly problematic soil that causes damage to civil engineering infrastructures when it encounters moisture changes. Therefore, it is an engineering requirement to stabilize/change unsuitable soils by using local materials by blending one another or modifying the property to improve its state of weakness. In this study, the problematic expansive black cotton soil was artificially replicated from the combination/mixture of low expansive and highly expansive clay soils. The agricultural wastes/biomass such as rice husk powder, bamboo powder, wheat straw, sugarcane bagasse, and shredded paper (celldoron) were used to investigate the improvement in the treated soil. These plant-based additives were selected based on local availability, Affordability, and efficiency. The replicated soil specimen was tested for the basic geotechnical engineering properties such as atterberg limit test (LL, PL) and free swell ratio (FSR). In additon, the agricultural waste additives were evaluated for water holding capacity and cellulosic composition.