ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We thank almighty God for giving us the strength and determination to motivate
our self to complete this project.

Our thanks to the philanthropists of Sriguru Institute of Technology, for providing

us quality Engineering education, our director Mr.R.NATARAJAN and our principal
Dr.S.BABU DEVASENAPATI,M.Tech.,Ph.D., for providing all facilities available in this
college to carry out the project work.

We are extremely grateful to Prof.C.V.BINDU,M.E.,(Ph.D.), HOD of Civil

Engineering, Sriguru Institute of Technology, Coimbatore, for her remarkable guidance,
advice and motivation in completing this project.

We sincerely express our gratitude to our project guide Mr.K.V.VIGNESH M.E.,

Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Sriguru Institute of Technology,
Coimbatore, for his guidance throughout the project.

We also thank all the teaching and non-teaching staff of the department for
encouraging and supporting us during the entire process of this project. We also extend
our gratitude to all our friends who all stood behind our project by helping us in many
aspects.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER TITLE PAGE NO

NO
LIST OF FIGURES vi
LIST OF TABLES vii
ABSTRACT vii
1 INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 GENERAL 1
1.2 SOIL STABILIZATION 1
1.2.1 Definition 1
1.2.2 Principles of Soil Stabilization 2
1.3 BLACK COTTON SOIL 2
1.4 MURRUM SOIL 2
1.5 RECRON-3S FIBER 3
1.5.1 Properties of Recron-3s Fiber 3
2 LITERATURE REVIEW 4
3 METHODOLOGY 7
3.1 GENERAL 7
3.2 MATERIALS USED 9
3.2.1 Soil Sample Collection 9
3.2.2 Collection of Recron-3s Fiber 9
4 LABORATORY INVESTIGATION 10
4.1 SOIL PROPERTIES 10
4.1.1 Atterberg Limits 10
4.1.2 Particle Size Distribution 10
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 4.1.3 Specific Gravity 11
4.1.4 Shear Strength 12
4.2 BRIEF STEPS INVOLVED IN EXPERIMENTS 13
4.2.1 Specific gravity Test 13
4.2.2 Liquid Limit Test 14
4.2.3 Plastic Limit Test 14
4.2.4 Particle Size Distribution 14
4.2.5 Proctor Compaction Test 14
4.2.6 Direct Shear Test 15
4.2.7 Unconfined Compressive Strength Test 16
4.2.8 Organic Matter Test 16
4.2.9 Free Swell Index Test 17
4.3 PROPERTIES OF BLACK COTTON SOIL 18
4.3.1 Specific gravity Test 18
4.3.2 Grain Size Distribution 18
4.3.3 Atterberg Limit 19
4.3.4 Organic Content Test 21
4.3.5 Free Swell Test 21
4.3.6 Standard Proctor Compaction Test 21
4.3.7 Unconfined Compressive Strength Test 22
4.4 PROPERTIES OF MURRUM SOIL 24
4.4.1 Specific gravity Test 24
4.4.2 Sieve Analysis Test 24
4.4.3 Standard Proctor Compaction Test 25

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 4.4.4 Relative Density Test 26
4.4.5 Direct Shear Test 26
4.4.6 Organic Content Test 27
5 EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION 29
5.1 GENERAL 29
5.2 EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION ON BLACK 29
COTTON SOIL AND MURRUM SOIL
5.2.1 Atterberg Limits 29
5.2.2 Free Swell Index Test 30
5.2.3 Proctor Compaction Test 31
5.2.4 Unconfined Compressive Strength Test 31
5.2.5 Direct Shear Test 32
6 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 33
6.1 GENERAL 33
6.2 RESULT 33
6.2.1 FOR BLACK COTTON SOIL 33
6.2.1.1 Atterberg Limits 33
6.2.1.2 Standard Proctor Compaction Test 34
6.2.1.3 Unconfined Compressive Strength Test 39
6.2.2 FOR MURRUM SOIL 45
6.2.2.1 Atterberg Limits 455
6.2.2.2 Standard Proctor Compaction Test 47
7 CONCLUSION 49
8 REFERENCE 50

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 LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURE TITLE PAGE NO

NO
3.1 Methodology 8
3.2 Black Cotton Soil Sample 9
3.3 Murrum Soil Sample 9
3.4 Recron-3s Fiber 9
4.1 Sieve Analysis of Black Cotton soil 19
4.2 No. of blows Vs Water content Graph 20

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4.3 Compaction Curve for Black Cotton Soil 22
4.4 Stress Vs Strain Curve 22
4.5 Compaction Curve for Murrum Soil 25
4.6 Normal Stress Vs Shear stress Graph 26
5.1 Variation of Limits 29
5.2 Free Swell Index for Various % of Recron-3s 30
5.3 Soil Added with Recron-3s 31
5.4 Sample Preparation 31
5.5 Failure pattern of specimen 31
6.1 Moisture content Vs Dry density for 5% reinforcement 35
6.2 Moisture content Vs Dry density for 10% reinforcement 36
6.3 Moisture content Vs Dry density for 15% reinforcement 37
6.4 Moisture content Vs Dry density for 20% reinforcement 38
6.5 Stress Vs Strain Curve for 5% reinforcement 40
6.6 Stress Vs Strain Curve for 10% reinforcement 41
6.7 Stress Vs Strain Curve for 15% reinforcement 43
6.8 Stress Vs Strain Curve for 20% reinforcement 44
6.9 Effect of Recron-3s addition of Liquid limit 45
6.10 Effect of Recron-3s addition of Plastic limit 46
6.11 Effect of Recron-3s addition of Plasticity index 46
6.12 Effect of Recron-3s addition of Atterberg limit 46
6.13 Effect of Recron-3s addition of OMC &MDD for 48
Murrum soil

LIST OF TABLES

TABLE TITLE PAGE NO

NO
1. Properties of Recron-3s Fiber 3
2. Different Specific Gravity Value 12
3. Specific Gravity for Black Cotton soil 18
4. Liquid Limit Value of Black Cotton Soil 19
5. Plastic Limit Value of Black Cotton Soil 20
6. Determination of Organic Matter for Black Cotton soil 21
7. Proctor Compaction Test Values 21

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8. Properties of Black Cotton Soil 23
9. Specific Gravity value 24
10. Determination of Direct Shear test 26
11. Determination of Organic Matter for Murrum soil 27
12. Properties of Murrum Soil 27
13. Free Swell Index for Various % of Recron-3s 30
14. Atterberg Limits 33
15. Proctor Compaction Test for 5% reinforcement 34
16. Proctor Compaction Test for 10% reinforcement 35
17. Proctor Compaction Test for 15% reinforcement 36
18. Proctor Compaction Test for 20% reinforcement 37
19. Effect of Recron-3s addition of Proctor Compaction in 38
Black Cotton Soil
20. UCS test for 5% reinforcement 39
21. UCS test for 10% reinforcement 40
22. UCS test for 15% reinforcement 42
23. UCS test for 20% reinforcement 43
24. Effect of Recron-3s addition of Atterberg limit 47
25. Effect of Recron-3s addition of OMC &MDD for 47
Murrum soil

ABSTRACT

There is a rapid increase in generation of waste plastics all around the world
due to economic growth, changing consumption and production patterns. The world's
annual consumption of plastic materials has increased from around 5 million tonnes in
the 1950s to nearly 100 million tonnes. Thus, presently 20 times more plastic is
produced as compared to 50 years ago.

In Asia and the Pacific, as well as many other developing regions, plastic
consumption has increased much more than the world’s average due to rapid
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urbanization and economic development. So, with this more and more resources are
being used to meet the increased demand of plastics, which results in higher generation
of plastic waste. After food waste and paper waste, plastic waste is the third major
constitute at municipal and industrial waste in cities.

Even the cities with low economic growth have started producing more plastic
waste due to increased use of plastic packaging, plastic shopping bags, PET bottles
and other goods/appliances using plastic as the major component. This situation gets
worsened due to the fact that they are not even aware of the ill-effects of plastic waste
to environment.

Due to growing concern about the disposal off plastic waste, and the panic in the
current environmentalist, the object of this thesis was chosen as “Soil Stabilization
Using Polypropylene as Waste Fiber Material” which is one of the type of the plastic
waste. In this research work, an extensive laboratory work has been done to investigate
the use of the waste fibers of the polypropylene for the improvement of the various
properties of the clayey (CL) type of soil obtained. The physical properties of the “Plain
Soil” as well as “Reinforced Soil” such as maximum dry density (MDD) at optimum
moisture content (OMC), direct shear strength parameters and unconfined compressive
strength (UCS) have been determined with the use of waste fibers polypropylene at
different percentage 0 %, 5%, 10%, 15% & 20% of waste fiber material by weight of the
dry soil sample.

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