An Experimental Study on Black Cotton Soil Stabilization by Using Terazyme

Abstract

In developing countries like India the most important requirement of any project after performance criteria is its economical feasibility and serviceability criteria. The conventional methods are time consuming and are not economically feasible. Hence there is a need to find the other possible ways to satisfy the performance as well as economical criteria. These enzymes have been proven to be very effective and economical. Another advantage of the bio-enzyme is that these are environment friendly. The efficiency of bio enzyme depends upon the amount of dosage, type of soil and curing period. In our country vast areas consist of black cotton soils. As the conventional soil stabilizers like gravel, sand and others are depleting and becoming expensive day by day at a very rapid pace, it becomes necessary to look towards for alternative eco-friendly stabilizers as their substitute. Recently many Bio-enzymes have emerged as cost effective stabilizers for soil stabilization. One such type of bio-enzyme, Terazyme, has been used in the present work. The Terazyme effect on the unconfined compressive strength and on the atterberg limits were studied. The enzyme treated soil showing significant improvement in unconfined compressive strength values. The untreated soil has compressive strength as 71 kN/m2. After treating with Terazyme the soil showed significant improvement in strength. With curing period, the strength is increasing. The strength increment was found to be 300 percent. No significant improvement in liquid and plastic limit values with treatment of Terazyme enzyme. The compression index and coefficient of consolidation values decreasing with enzyme treatment for a prefixing curing period.