Pradeep Muley et. al.

/ International Journal of Engineering Science and Technology

Vol. 2(9), 2010, 4896-4901

EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES ON
UTILIZATION OF MURRUM AS HARD
SHOULDER MATERIAL
PRADEEP MULEY
PG Student
Department of Civil Engineering
M.A.N.I.T Bhopal, M.P. India 462051

Dr. P.K. JAIN

Associate Professor
Department of Civil Engineering
M.A.N.I.T Bhopal, M.P. India 462051
Mr. RAJEEV JAIN
Reader
Department of Applied Mechanics and Structure
S.A.T.I. Vidisha, M.P. 464001
ABSTRACT
Murrum is widely used material for the construction of pavement shoulders. Sometimes the available murrum
may not satisfy the requirement of CBR and hence need to be modified. The locally available granular material
like sand and/ or the crusher dust may be mixed to the soil to obtain the desired characteristics. The paper
discusses results of the experimental study in which the quality of local murrum has been improved by adding
stone dust. The index properties, compaction characteristics and California Bearing Ratio (CBR) parameters for
the murrum blended with varying percentages of the stone dust has been presented and it is shown that the
utility of the soil as a road material has been increased greatly by simple mixing of the granular material.

Keywords: Murrum, Stone Dust, Hard shoulder, GSB and CBR.

1 INTRODUCTION
The materials available for the construction of road are fine gravel, clay and sand or stone dust. The variable
mixtures of sand, dust silt and gravel could be successfully used for pavement construction, while the stone dust
forms an excellent material for slope protection. This is suitable for the construction of pavements. Clays are
quite impervious, but they lack in weight and stability and tend to swell and slump when saturated with water
and to shrink and crack when dry (Sundar Kumar and Ratnakanth Babu, 2010). The Lateritic soil is popularly
known as murrum. It is characterized by a deep weathered layer from which silica has been leached. There is no
humus, but an accumulation of aluminium and iron oxides and hydroxides. The reddish colour of these soils is
imparted by the iron compounds. Murrums are residual soils and are formed from weathering of basaltic rock at
places, where monsoon is severe (Ketkar, 1970). They constitute mixture of weathered rock pieces in varying
sizes, sand, silt and clays. They are good material for road construction.
The present investigation deals with mechanical stabilization of murrum with mixtures of stone dust
(Muley, 2010). This research work is to improve the behaviour of red murrum by use of locally available
material the stone dust. The work presented in this paper consist results of index properties, compaction
properties (optimum moisture content and maximum dry density) and CBR under soaked condition for the
murrum blended with varying percentages of stone dust.

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Pradeep Muley et. al. / International Journal of Engineering Science and Technology
Vol. 2(9), 2010, 4896-4901
2 EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATIONS
2.1 Material Used
The murrum soil and stone dust used in this study was collected from Vidisha-Bhopal National
Highway (NH-86) near Salamatpur Railway station in Madhya Pradesh and the stone dust was collected from
the crusher situated at Salamatpur Railway Station. The properties of murrum and stone dust are presented in the
table 1 and 2 respectively.
Table 1 Properties of the Murrum

Property
Specific Gravity
Gravel
Sand
Silt
Clay
Liquid limit
Plastic limit
Plasticity index
Classification Group
OMC
MDD
Soaked CBR

Result
2.66
7.6%
78.6%
10.3%
3.5%
41%
19%
22%
SC
13.00%
1.62 g/cc
10.94%

Table 2 Property of the Stone Dust

Property
Specific Gravity
Gravel
Fine Sand
Fines
OMC
MDD
Soaked CBR

Result
2.66
00.0%
26.2
73.8%
10.22 %
1.90 g/cc
58%

2.2 Details of the Test Variables

In the present work, murrum was physically stabilized by adding 10%, 20%, and 30% of stone dust by weight of
the soil.
3 ANALYSES OF TEST RESULTS
3.1 Effect of Mixing Stone Dust on Index Properties of Murrum
The Liquid limit (LL), plastic limit (PL) tests are conducted on the murrum for various mixes with stone dust.
The obtained results are presented in the table 3 and the figure 1. The plasticity index is obtained by deducting
plastic limit from the liquid limit.

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Pradeep Muley et. al. / International Journal of Engineering Science and Technology
Vol. 2(9), 2010, 4896-4901
Table 3. Values of Liquid Limit, Plastic Limit and Plasticity Index for murrum
Mixed with varying percentages of stone dust

Stone Dust Mixed by weight of raw soil

Test parameter
0%

10%

20%

30%

Liquid limit, %

41

36

29

28

Plastic limit, %

19

19

18

17

Plasticity index , %

22

17

11

11

Fig. 1. Variation of Liquid Limit, Plastic Limit and

Plasticity Index Values for Murrum
Mixed with Varying Percentages of Stone Dust

It is observed that from the table 3 and fig. 1, that the liquid limit, plastic limit and plasticity index of murrumstone dust mix decreases with increase in percentage of stone dust. The plasticity of the mixes is reduced due to
increase in stone dust particles, a non-plastic material.
3.2 Effect of Mixing Stone Dust on of Compaction Characteristics of Murrum
IS heavy compaction tests were conducted on the murrum stone dust mixes considered in the investigation to
determine the maximum dry density (MDD) values and optimum moisture content (OMC) values. The results
are shown in table 4.
Table 4. Values of OMC and MDD for different murrum mixtures

Percentages of Stone
Dust Mixed with
Murrum (%)

Compaction Properties

OMC
(%)
13

MDD
(kN/m3)
1.62

10
20
30

12
11.50
10.50

1.68
1.78
1.90

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Pradeep Muley et. al. / International Journal of Engineering Science and Technology
Vol. 2(9), 2010, 4896-4901
The variation of maximum dry density and optimum moisture content for varying percentages of additives are
shown in figure 2 and 3. The MDD values are increasing and OMC values are decreasing with increasing
percentages of stone dust added to the murrum. This is due to stone dust particles fills the voids of the coarse
grained particles of the murrum.

Fig. 2. Variation of MDD values for Murrum Mixed

With Varying Percentages of Additives

Fig. 3. Variation of OMC values for Murrum Mixed

With Varying Percentages of stone dust

3.3 Effect of Mixing Stone Dust on CBR Properties of Murrum

The effect of mixing stone dust on CBR of murrum in varying percentages samples are prepared with water
contents of optimum moisture contents are 13.00%, 12.00%, 11.50% and 10.50% and corresponding maximum
dry density values are 1.62, 1.68, 1.78 and 1.90 g/cc. The CBR tests were conducted on the prepared samples. It
is noted that CBR value of the murrum mixed with stone dust in various proportions varying from 0% to 30%
has increased gradually from 10.94% to 25.56% (table 5 and figure 4).

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Pradeep Muley et. al. / International Journal of Engineering Science and Technology
Vol. 2(9), 2010, 4896-4901
Table 5. Values of CBR for different murrum mixtures

Percentages of Stone Dust Mixed with

Murrum (%)

CBR, %

10.94

10
20
30

14.60
21.16
25.56

Fig. 4 Variation of CBR for Murrum Mixed

With Varying Percentages of stone dust

In the construction of roads on poor soils such as highly plastic clays, borrowed earth layer known as the select
soil needs to be laid. It should have soaked CBR more than 7. Further, the specifications for construction of
roads mention that CBR for hard shoulder material should be more than 12. The murram used in the present
study has CBR as 10.94 and as such, is usable as only select soil material. However, it may be seen from table 5
that by adding 10% stone dust, the material qualifies CBR requirement needed for hard shoulder.
As per MORD specifications, the granular sub base layer (GSB) used above sub grade should have CBR more
than 20 for grade C and more than 25 for grade B quality. The results of murrum stone dust mixes show that this
requirement is also met with by 20% and 30% stone dust respectively.
4 CONCLUSIONS
Based on the laboratory test results, the following conclusions are drawn:
1.
2.

3.

As the percentages of stone dust increased in the murrum, the plasticity characteristics of the mixture
decreases, MDD values increases and the corresponding OMC values decreases.
It is observed that the murrum of moderate CBR is improved significantly by varying quantity of stone
dust. In the present study soaked CBR of murrum was 10.94 which has been increased to 21.16 to
25.56 on mixing 20% and 30% stone dust respectively by weight of raw soil.
The soil which was not suitable as hard shoulder material, passes CBR requirement just by adding 10%
stone dust. Further the material satisfies CBR requirement of GSB material. The other requirement of
GSB such as liquid limit, plasticity index and the gradation may also be met with by manipulating the
quality and quantity of stone dust as this being a manufactured material.

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Pradeep Muley et. al. / International Journal of Engineering Science and Technology
Vol. 2(9), 2010, 4896-4901
REFERENCES
[1]

IS: 2720 (Part-IV)-1985. Indian Standard for Grain Size Analysis, BIS New Delhi.

[2]

IS: 2720 (Part-V)-1987. Indian Standard for Determination of liquid limit and plastic limit, BIS New Delhi.

[3]

IS: 2720 (Part-VIII)-1983. Indian Standard for Determination of Water Content-dry density relation using heavy Compaction,
BIS New Delhi.

[4]

IS: 2720 (Part-XVI)-1974.Indian Standard for Laboratory Determination of CBR, BIS, New Delhi.

[5]

IRC 37-2001. Guidelines for the Design of Flexible Pavements, New Delhi.

[6]

IRC:SP:20-2002. Rural Roads Manual, Indian Roads Congress, New Delhi.

[7]

Ketkar, D. J. (1970), Subsurface conditions-Bombay Island, Symposium on Subsurface Exploration and Foundations of
Structures in theBombay region, Indian National Society for Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering (Bombay Center),
Vol.1, 1970.

[8]

Sundar Kumar P and Ratnakanth Babu M.J (2010), Experimental studies on utilization of murrum as embankment material,
International Journal of Engineering Science and Technology, Vol. 2 (7), 2010, 2600-2666.

[9]

Muley P., "A Strategy for Improving Poor Soil for Road Construction and Development of Model for CBR Estimation ", M.Tech
Thesis,Department of Civil Engineering, MANIT - BHOPAL, July 2010.

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