Effect on Maximum Dry Density and Optimum …moisture content (OMC) increase upto an optimum value, then decrease and maximum dry density (MDD) decrease. The maximum value of OMC attained

Effect on Maximum Dry Density and Optimum Moisture Content

of Expansive Soil on Addition of Sawdust Ash

Himani Rai

Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering,

Dev Bhoomi Institute of Technology, Dehradun

[email protected]

Abstract

Sawdust is by product which can be obtained from

sawmills. It has been observed that sawdust is very

oftenly treated as waste and instead of getting fully

utilised, very large part of it is dumped in the

dumping sites which additionally creates a problem

for the environment. In the present study sawdust

ash (SDA) has been used as an additive for

studying its effect on Maximum Dry Density

(MDD) and Optimum Moisture Content (OMC) of

expansive soil. Expansive soil and the soil mixed

with sawdust ash were subjected to grain size

analysis, Atterberg limit, specific gravity and

Standard Proctor test. Standard Proctor test have

been conducted for different samples of soil where

the soil has been mixed with 2%, 5%, 10%, 15%,

20% and 25% of SDA and the results have been

analysed. It has been found that on addition of

SDA, the MDD of the soil shows a decreasing

trend and OMC for the soil shows an increasing

trend. The value of OMC increases upto certain

limit and then starts decreasing.

Keywords: Expansive soil, sawdust ash, standard

proctor test, optimum moisture content, maximum

dry density.

Materials

A. Expansive soil

Expansive soils have tendency to swell when come

in contact with moisture and shrink on removal of

moisture. Expansive soil used in the study is

moderate expansive and as per IS: 1498-1970, it

has been classified as CL (clay with low plasticity).

The soil has been procured from Sitarganj

(Khatima), U.S. Nagar (Uttarakhand).

B. Sawdust ash

Sawdust is by product of processed wood. The

main chemical composition of sawdust is carbon

60.8%, hydrogen 5.19%, oxygen 33.83% and

nitrogen 0.90%.Sawdust in the present study has

been procured form Workshop, College of

Technology, GBPUAT, Pantnagar (Uttarakhand). It

was dried in sun before burning. The burnt ash was

then sieved through 600 micron sieve for removal

of unwanted particles such as unburnt sawdust.

Testing programme

The soil was subjected various tests to determine

the basic properties of the natural soil (S). Different

percentage of sawdust ash was mixed and the

samples were subjected to some tests. A brief

experimental programme has been presented in

table 1.

Table 1: Experimental program

S.No. Sample Tests

conducted

No.

of

tests

1 Soil Grain size

analysis

Atterberg

limit

Specific

gravity

Standard

proctor test

1

1

1

1

2 Sawdust Ash Atterberg

limit

Specific

gravity

1

1

3 S + 2% SDA

S + 5% SDA

S + 10% SDA

S + 15% SDA

S + 20% SDA

S + 25% SDA

Standard

proctor test

1

Results and Discussion

A. Geotechnical Parameters of Soil

The results of different tests conducted on soil have

been presented in tabular form in table 2.

International Journal of Applied Engineering Research ISSN 0973-4562 Volume 14, Number 9, 2019 (Special Issue) © Research India Publications. http://www.ripublication.com

Page 1 of 5

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Text Box

Table 2: Physical properties of soil

B. Geotechnical Parameters of Sawdust Ash

(SDA)

The results of tests conducted on SDA have been

presented in table 3.

Table 3: Geotechnical properties of Sawdust

Ash (SDA)

C. Standard Proctor Test

Following are the graphs between maximum dry

density (ϒ d) and moisture content (w) showing the

results of Standard Proctor Test:

I. Soil with 0% SDA

Fig. 1: Dry density v/s water content relation

for soil

II. Soil with 2% SDA


for soil with 2% SDA

III. Soil with 5% SDA



15.6

16.2

16.8

17.4

18

7 11 15 19

ϒd

(kN

/m3)

w (%)

Soil with 0% SDA

15

15.6

16.2

16.8

17.4

18

6 10 14 18 22

ϒd

(kN

/m3)

w (%)

Soil with 2% (SDA)

15.5

16.1

16.7

17.3

8 12 16 20

ϒd

(kn

/m3)

w (%)

Soil with 5% SDA

Parameters Results

Grain size distribution:

Clay size fraction (%)

Silt size fraction (%)

Sand size fraction (%)

Soil type as per IS: 1498-1970

11.92

80.52

7.56

CL

Liquid limit (%) 25.12

Plastic limit (%) 10.19

Shrinkage limit (%) 9.5

Plasticity index (%) 14.93

Specific gravity 2.51

Maximum dry density (kN/m3) 17.76

Optimum moisture content (%) 13.00

Parameters Results

Plasticity index Non-

Plastic

Specific gravity 1.96


Page 2 of 5

IV. Soil with 10% SDA



V. Soil with 15% SDA



VI. Soil with 20% SDA



VII. Soil with 25% SDA



The results show that on addition of SDA optimum

moisture content (OMC) increase upto an optimum

value, then decrease and maximum dry density

(MDD) decrease. The maximum value of OMC

attained was 18.5% for which maximum MDD was

16.58 kN/m3. Further the results have been

presented in table 4.

15

15.6

16.2

16.8

17.4

10 14 18 22 26

ϒd

(kN

/m3)

w (%)

Soil with 10% SDA

15

15.6

16.2

16.8

10 14 18 22 26

ϒd

(kN

/m3)

w (%)

Soil with 15% SDA

14

14.6

15.2

15.8

16.4

17

10 14 18 22 26

ϒd

(kN

/m3)

w (%)

Soil with 20% SDA

13.2

13.8

14.4

15

15.6

16.2

10 14 18 22

ϒd

(kN

/m3)

w (%)

Soil with 25% SDA


Page 3 of 5

Table 4: OMC and MDD values of soil with

Sawdust Ash (SDA)

S.No. Material OMC

(%)

MDD

(kN/m3)

1 Soil + 2% SDA 13.5 17.71

2 Soil + 5% SDA 15.0 17.36

3 Soil + 10% SDA 17.0 17.27

4 Soil + 15% SDA 18.5 16.58

5 Soil + 20% SDA 18.0 16.28

6 Soil + 25% SDA 17.5 15.79

Figure 8 and 9 shows the variation MDD and OMC

respectively with varying percentage of sawdust

ash.

Fig. 8: Variation of MDD with different

percentage of SDA

Fig. 9: Variation of OMC with different

percentage of SDA

Conclusion

1. Optimum moisture content increased and

maximum dry density decreased on addition of

sawdust ash

2. The maximum value of OMC attained was

18.5% at which MDD was 16.58 kN/m2.

References

[1] Butt W.A., Gupta K. and Jha J.N. 2016.

“Strength behavior of clayey soil stabilized with

saw dust ash”, International Journal of Geo-

Engineering, 7(1): 18.

[2] Edeh J.E., Agbede I.O. and Tyoyila A. 2013.

“Evaluation of Sawdust Ash–Stabilized

Lateritic Soil as Highway Pavement

Material”, Journal of Materials in Civil

Engineering, 26(2): 367-373.

[3] Elinwa A.U. and Mahmood Y.A. 2002. “Ash

from timber waste as cement replacement

material”, Cement and Concrete

Composites, 24(2):219-222.

15.6

16.2

16.8

17.4

18

0 5 10 15 20 25 30

MD

D (

kN

/m3)

SDA (%)

SDA Vs MDD

0

4

8

12

16

20

0 5 10 15 20 25 30

OM

C (

%)

SDA (%)

SDA Vs OMC


Page 4 of 5

[4] Khan S. and Khan H. 2016. “Improvement of

Mechanical Properties by Waste Sawdust Ash

Addition into Soil”, Jordan Journal of Civil

Engineering, 10(1).

[5]Kumar.K A., Narayanan P. and Chiranthana

N. 2014. “Stability of Red Clay and Laterite

Soil with Sawdust Ash as an Amendment”,

International Journal of Combined Research &

Development IJCRD- eISSN:2321-

225X;pISSN:2321-2241 Volume: 2; Issue: 2

[6]Naranagowda M.J., Nithin N.S., Maruthi

K.S. and Mosin Khan D.S. 2015. “Effect Of

Saw Dust Ash And Fly Ash On Stability Of

Expansive Soil”, International Journal of

Research in Engineering and Technology, 4:83-

86.

[7]Ogunribido T.H.T. 2012. “Geotechnical

Properties of Saw Dust Ash Stabilized

Southwestern Nigeria Lateritic Soils”,

Environmental Research, Engineering and

Management, 60(2): 29-33.

[8]Standard-IS, I., 1498–1970. “Classification and

Identification of Soils for General Engineering

Purposes”, New Delhi, India.


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Effect on Maximum Dry Density and Optimum …moisture content (OMC) increase upto an optimum value, then decrease and maximum dry density (MDD) decrease. The maximum value of OMC attained