STABILIZATION OF FINE SAND MIXED WITH BOTTLE CAP STRIPS FOR DESIGN OF EMBANKMENT AND PAVEMENT IN CONSTRUCTION OF ROADS

Abstract

The object of the present investigations is to study the strength characteristics of fine sand of western
Rajasthan stabilized with cheap and readily available material like plastic waste. Fine sand which covers a big part of
western Rajasthan is weak in strength and possesses problems in construction of road. Soils are permeable materials
because of the existence of interconnected voids that allow the flow of fluids when a differencein energy head exists.
As per Indian Standard Classification System of soils, the fine sand has nil cohesion. Due to very low compressive
strength and high permeability, fine sand is not readily suitable for supporting flexible pavements as sub grade. This
study discusses the possibility of stabilization of fine sand using plastic bottle cap waste as admixture. The varying
percentage 0.15%, 0.25, 0.50%, 0.75%, 1% of square pieces of plastic waste were mixed with fine sand of different
densities 1.66gm/cc, 1.62gm/cc and 1.57gm/cc (M.D.D.). All the Direct Shear Tests were conducted at different mix
compositions of plastic waste bottle cap and fine sand of different dry densities as arrived from Standard Proctor Test.
On the basis of the experiments performed, it is determined that the stabilization of fine sand using bottle cap plastic
waste as admixture improves the strength characteristics of the fine sand so that it becomes usable as construction of
embankment.