International Journal of Civil Engineering and Technology (IJCIET)

Volume 8, Issue 4, April 2017, pp. 1860–1868, Article ID: IJCIET_08_04_212

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ISSN Print: 0976-6308 and ISSN Online: 0976-6316

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INFLUENCE OF TILE WASTE POWDER ON

THE STRENGTH AND SWELL
CHARACTERISTICS OF EXPANSIVE SOIL
J. Samson Paul Muller
PG Student, Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Technology,
SRM University, Tamilnadu, India

V. Janani
Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and
Technology, SRM University, Tamilnadu, India

ABSTRACT
Soil stabilization is one of the ground improvement methods of treating the weak
soils. unfit for engineering purposes and makes them suitable for construction
purposes. This paper focuses on the importance of stabilization of soil using tiles
waste as admixture. The expansive soil has serious threat as it possess seasonal
variations of moisture content. It leads to severe damages to pavements and
foundations of structure. In order to minimize this problem, it needs to be stabilized.
The tiles waste has the characteristic to control the swelling behavior of expansive
soil because of its high lime content. In this investigation, the geotechnical properties
of the soil was determined and the strength characteristics of the soil sample treated
with tiles waste powder was observed by varying percentage of Tile waste powder
from 0 to 25% at an increment of 5% is mixed with soil sample and tested at different
curing periods (1,7,14,28 days). From the analysis of test results it can be observed
that the Unconfined Compressive Strength (UCS) and California Bearing Ratio CBR)
were improved with an increase in percentage of the admixture and maximum
strength was obtained at 20% of tiles waste. In order to reduce disposal problem, tile
waste can be effectively used in stabilization works.
Key words: CBR, Tile waste powder, UCS.
Cite this Article: J. Samson Paul Muller and V. Janani, Influence of Tile Waste
Powder on the Strength and Swell Characteristics of Expansive Soil. International
Journal of Civil Engineering and Technology, 8(4), 2017, pp. 1860–1868.
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1. INTRODUCTION
Expansive soils is normally referred as heavable soils as the fluctuations in the moisture
content makes the soil to swell and shrink. Expansive soils contain the clay minerals as
smectite, montmorillonite, bentonite, attapulgite, nontronite, chlorite and illite which

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 Influence of Tile Waste Powder on the Strength and Swell Characteristics of Expansive Soil

generally exhibit these properties. Worldwide, many case studies for failed structures built on
expansive soils have been reported. Stabilization is the process of artificially alter
the soil properties for construction purposes by the physical or chemical methods and making
it to increase the load bearing capacity. In order to control the waste materials, several
researchers have been made to stabilize the soil by using industrial waste materials like waste
foundry sand (Amrendra et al.), fly ash (Ravichandran et al), ceramic tile waste (Geeta Rani
et al.), bagasse ash (Alil et al.), phosphogypsum (Divya Krishnan et al) , marble dust (Alil et
al.) and rice husk ash (Akshaya Kumar Sabat et al) as a form of admixture to control the
swelling behaviour of soil. From that Tiles waste powders (TWP) is one of the potential
waste materials to improve the strength characteristics of the expansive soil. Similarly a large
amount of tile waste is produced in the country and arising TWP are added at various
percentages to expansive soil. The TWP consists of large quantity of CaO and silica content.
The ceramic tile is prepared by the action of heating and afterwards cooling process. From the
current scenario, 55% of tile waste remains as unused material in our country. Many more
researchers like Muthu Kumar et al. (2015), Adarsh Minhas et al., (2016) shows the effective
use of Marble waste in improving the properties of soil. Brajesh Mishra et al., (2014)
observed that UCS and CBR of soil increases substantially on addition optimum percentage
of waste foundry sand. Geeta Rani et al., (2014) concluded that swelling pressure was
reduced by the addition of ceramic waste. R. Alil et al., (2012) studied by the effect of marble
dust and bagasse ash on the stabilization of expansive soils. Ravi chandranet.al., (2015)
studied that strength of soil increased with the addition of fly ash. Divya Krishnan et al.,
(2015)studied the strength characteristic of soil by the addition of Phosphogypsum (PG).
Akshaya Kumar Saba observes that the addition of the rice husk ash and lime which possess
the decreases the MDD and increases the OMC of the expansive soil. Due to above reason, a
lot of research work were taken in the process of developing the methods for producing ways
to reuse these waste materials. In this study varying the tiles waste powder (5, 10, 15, 20,
25%) with soil sample. From the above research review it is seen that there is a vast scope of
utilization of Tiles waste as an additive in the improvement of geotechnical properties of soil.

2. MATERIALS AND PROPERTIES

Soil sample was collected from Perugudi in Chennai. The sample was collected from 1 metre
depth from the ground surface after the removal of top surface soil. Then the collected soil
sample was air dried and pulverized which was suitable for conducting test. The Tile waste
powder (TWP) was used to stabilize the soil sample. The several laboratory tests were
conducted on virgin soil sample as per IS 2720 to determine the basic properties of soil as
shown on Table 1. From the results, the soil classified under High compressible Clay (CH),
based on Atterberg’s limit having very high degree of expansion.

Table 1 Physical properties of Expansive soil

TEST SYMBOLS SOIL SAMPLE
Specific gravity G 2.6
Free swell index FSI 110%
Liquid limit WL 63.5%
Plastic limit WP 23.6%
Plasticity index IP 39.9%
Shrinkage limit WS 5.14
Standard Proctor ᵞdmax 1.57g/cc
compaction OMC 18.5%
CBR % 5.71
UCC qu 149.7
Soil Classification - CH

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 J. Samson Paul Muller and V. Janani

3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

3.1. California Bearing Ratio Tests
To conduct the California Bearing Ratio test, the required amount of soil sample which
passing through 4.75mm sieve was compacted in a mould of diameter 150mm and of height
175 mm with a detachable collar. The soil was compacted in 3 equal layer and each layer was
given 56 blows by 2.6 kg rammer. The sample was prepared and cured using soaked gunny
bags and rice husk to avoid the variation in moisture content. The Test conducted as per IS
2720 (Part16) - 1987. The load was applied as steady strain rate of 1.25 mm/minute and CBR
value noted as per the procedure. The Tile waste powders (TWP) were added to soil in
varying percentages (5, 10, 15, 20, 25% and 30%). Based on the test results, it was observed
that there was increase in strength of soil by adding various percentage of increase in tile
waste was shown in table 2.Also the incremental ratio of the CBR value of soil sample was
increased based on the increment of curing period was shown in table 3. The typical load
penetration curve for optimum percentage (20%) of TWP at different curing period (1, 7, 14,
28 days) and maximum strength attainment curve for various percentage of admixture (5, 10,
15, 20 and 25%) were shown in figure 1 & 2. The Effect of variation of CBR value for
different percentage of TWP as well as the curing period (1, 7, 14, 28 days) was shown in
Figure 3 & 4.

Table 2 CBR values of varying percentage of TWP with different curing period
CBR (%)
Percentage of
Curing periods (days)
TWP (%)
1 7 14 28
5 6.23 6.75 7.79 8.83
10 6.75 7.27 8.83 9.8
15 7.27 8.31 10.39 11.43
20 7.79 10.4 11.43 12.47
25 5.7 7.79 9.3 10.9

Table 3 Increment Ratio of CBR values from virgin soil sample with varying percentage of TWP with
different curing period
Incremental Ratio of CBR (%)
Percentage of
Curing periods (days)
TWP (%)
1 7 14 28
5 1.092 1.18 1.37 1.549
10 1.18 1.27 1.55 1.72
15 1.28 1.46 1.82 2
20 1.37 1.82 2 2.19
25 1 1.37 1.63 1.9

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Influence of Tile Waste Powder on the Strength and Swell Characteristics of Expansive Soil

350
1 day 7 days
300
14 days 28 days
250
200

Load, kg 150
100
50
0
0 5 10 15
Penetration, mm

Figure 1 Effect of Load Penetration curve for 20% addition of TWP for different curing period
360
5%TP 10%TP 15%TP

270 20%TP 25%TP

Load , kg

180

90

0
0 5 10 15

Penetration ,mm

Figure 2 Load Penetration curve of soil with varying TWP for 28 days curing period
18
1 day 7 days 14 days 28 days

12
CBR

0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Percentage of TWP

Figure 3 Effect on CBR value for varying Percentage of TWP for different curing period

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 J. Samson Paul Muller and V. Janani

20
5% TWP 10% TWP 15% TWP

15 20% TWP 25% TWP

CBR
10

0
0 7 14 21 28 35

Curing period, days

Figure 4 Effect of CBR value for different curing period with varying percentage of tile waste
The maximum value of CBR increases from 5.71% for un-stabilized soil to 12.47% for
stabilized soil at the addition of 20% TWP for 28 days curing periods. It was concluded that
the initial increase in CBR value was due to the gradual formation of cementitious
compounds from the reaction between the CaCO3 present in the tile waste powder and soil.
After 20% of tile waste was reached, the value decreased due to excess concentration of
calcium carbonate in the soil.

3.2. Unconfined Compression Test

From the compaction test result value, the soil samples were prepared with desire optimum
water content and Maximum Dry Density. The samples were taken out and kept in polythene
cover for different curing period such as (1, 7, 14 & 28) and covered with soaked gunny bags
and tested in compression testing machine; continued the test until the failure taken place in
the sample. The test was conducted as per IS 2720 (part 10)-1991. The clay content of the soil
which is responsible for the expansive nature was being replaced by the tiles waste. The UCS
value for different curing periods with varying percentage of TWP was shown in table 4. The
percentage of increment in strength from virgin soil sample was depends on the increment of
TWP and the curing periods was shown in table 5.The typical stress strain characteristics
curve of soil sample with different proportions of TWP were shown in figure 5 & 6.The
effect of influence of TWP in the UCS value for treated soil based on different curing period
were plotted in Figure 7 and 8.

Table 4 UCS values with varying percentage of TWP with different curing period
UCS (kPa)
Percentage of TWP
Curing periods (days)
(%)
1 7 14 28
5 171 186.3 198.6 207
10 212.3 230 242 247
15 237.18 268.3 286.4 316
20 261.2 313 336 358
25 223 277 290 328

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 Influence of Tile Waste Powder on the Strength and Swell Characteristics of Expansive Soil

Table 5 Incremental Percentage of UCS (%) with varying percentage of TWP with different curing
periods
Percentage of Incremental UCS (%)
Percentage of
Curing periods (days)
TWP (%)
1 7 14 28
5 14.3 24.5 32.75 38.36
10 41.9 53.74 61.76 65.1
15 58.5 79.3 91.44 111.2
20 74.59 109.22 124.5 139.3
25 49.1 69.78 75.8 83.15

600
1 day 7 days 14 days 28 days

400
Stress, kPa

200

0
0 0.05 0.1 0.15

Strain

Figure 5 Stress strain variation curve value for 20% additionof TWP for different curing period
600
5%TP 10%TP 15%TP

20%TP 25%TP
400
Stress, kPa

200

0
0 0.04 0.08 0.12 0.16
Strain

Figure 6 Stress strain variation curve with varying percentage of TWP for 28 days curing

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 J. Samson Paul Muller and V. Janani

210
1 day 7 days 14 days 28 days

Incremental Percentage of
140

UCC 70

0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Percentage of TWP

Figure 7 Effect Incremental percentage UCC value with varying percentage of TWP for different
curing period
600
5% TWP 10%TWP 15%TWP
Max UCC, kPa

20%TWP 25%TWP
400

200

0
0 7 14 21 28 35
Curing Period

Figure 8 Effect of Maximum UCC with different curing period for varying percentage TWP
From the compressive strength values shows that soil sample was 358 kN/m2 at 20%
addition of TWP for 28 days curing period. Due to chemical bonding between the admixture
and soil, the strength of soil was increased up to 20% of addition of TWP. Further addition of
admixture reduces the strength property of soil.

3.3. Free Swell Test

The test was conducted as per IS: 2720 (Part XL) – 1977. The percentage increase in volume
of soil under submerged condition is determined using this test. 10g of soil passing 425
micron sieve were placed in 100 ml measuring cylinder, one with kerosene and the other
filled with water. The variation of volume of soil in water and kerosene gives the swell index.
The soil sample used for investigation had swell index of 110%. Based on test results which
were obtained from the strength characteristics, it was concluded that the maximum strength
was attained at 20% of TWP under 28 days of curing, and this soil sample is tested for free
swell and the swell index corresponding to the soil was reduced to 70%. It shows that the
percentage reduction of swell was found to be 57. This reduction of swell was due to the
replacement of clay by TWP, which had the non-expansive characteristics.

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 Influence of Tile Waste Powder on the Strength and Swell Characteristics of Expansive Soil

4. CONCLUSION
• The increase in percentage of CBR value of soil sample was obtained as 118.77% on 20%
addition of tile waste powder for 28 days curing. On further increase in percentage of TWP to
soil decrease the CBR value.
• The percentage increase in UCS of soil was found to be 139% on 20% addition of TWP for 28
days curing.
• The maximum reduction of 57% in swell characteristics on treated soil by adding 20% of
TWP under 28 days curing period was observed.
• The effective use of this admixture leads to strengthen the soil and makes as greener
environment.

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[2] P.T.Ravichandran, Divya Krishnan.K, V. Janani, R.Annadurai, Manisha Gunturi (2015),
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 J. Samson Paul Muller and V. Janani

[13] IS: 2720 (Part 3/Sec1) 1980, “Methods of Tests for Soil – Determination Specific
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