Effect of addition of construction–demolition waste on strength characteristics of high plastic clays

Various wastes have gained attention nowaday as they are widely used in stabilization of expansive soils. The construction–demolition waste has not been widely used in soil stabilization, and its use is still under research. A lot of construction–demolition waste is being produced from old dismantled buildings whose disposal is a major concern due to limited availability of land space. This paper presents a laboratory investigation using consolidated drained triaxial test in order to study the stress–strain and volumetric behavior, shear strength parameters, strength ratio at various strain levels and stiffness of un-stabilized as well as crushed construction–demolition waste (CCDW) stabilized soil. The test results revealed that the addition of CCDW in un-stabilized soil has improved its stress–strain and volumetric behavior remarkably, at all confining pressures. The volumetric strain has been found to be decreased with the addition of CCDW. The inclusion of CCDW in un-stabilized soil has decreased the cohesion value to a limited extent and increased the angle of shearing resistance significantly. An increase in strength ratio as well as the stiffness of un-stabilized soil has also been improved when it is stabilized with CCDW. In the end, a practical numerical example has been solved in order to make the readers understand the significance of the improvement in un-stabilized soil after incorporating CCDW into it. This mixture of CCDW-stabilized expansive soil can be used in construction of low-volume traffic roads and embankment stability.