Effect of marble dust and steel slag on consistency limits and compaction characteristics of lateritic soil

Abstract

Engineers are faced with the problems of providing very suitable materials for highway and other foundations construction. Lateritic soils are highly weathered indigenous soil available in large quantities but generally need improvements to adequately satisfy the required construction purposes. This research investigates the influence of steel slag and marble dust addition on some geotechnical properties of lateritic soil. The results revealed that the soil is well graded based on particle size distribution and is classified as A-2-5 under AASHTO system. With progressive increase in each stabiliser, both the liquid limit, plastic limit and plasticity index exhibit fluctuating patterns. In addition, both marble dust and steel slag increased the maximum dry density with increasing proportions in the soil sample but exhibit irregular patterns for optimum moisture content. This research provides an insight to the quality of lateritic soils obtainable in the study area, and the level of improvements required before they are suitable for road construction.

Evaluation of the Statistical Significance of Compactive Efforts, Slag and Cement on the Geotechnical Features of Laterite Soil

“…The slight increase in PI at 10% steel slag might result from an increase in liquid limit due to the hydration reaction of cement as its content increased. A decrease in LL and PI values as well as increase in PL values with increasing contents of steel slag agreed with the results of study conducted by Adedokun et al [15]. They both showed that steel slag and cement have effects on the Atterberg limits of the soil, although the impact of steel slag that is considered to be a waste material, is more significant than of cement.…”

“…Similarly, the increase in MDD values with increasing amount of slag is quite distinctive under the WAS energy level than the other compactive efforts. The same trend of increase in MDD values with the addition of steel slag was noted by Adedokun et al [15]. For varying cement contents, it was also observed that the values of MDD increased with increasing cement content from 2.30 -4.30% for BSL, 2.20 -8.20% for WAS and 2.60 -8.70% for AASHTO.…”

“…Studies have also clearly shown that not more than 50% of these wastes are currently converted into different purposes while larger percentages are dumped in the environment [9][10][11][12][13]. However, a sustainable and environmentally friendly way of solving these challenges is to consider the possibility of waste minimization by recycling and reusing [14][15], and one of such ways that has received the attention of environmental researchers, considered in this study, is by incorporating the industrial waste steel slag into the weak lateritic soil as a means of improving the properties of the soil and at the same time reducing the accumulation of the waste material in the environment. As the continuous production of wastes without proper disposal system will always pose a great threat to the environment.…”

“…Manasseh [27] and Vijayakumar et al [28] noted that carbon dioxide, which is a major greenhouse gas, contributes approximately 65% of global warming. This therefore leads to the search for alternative local materials as partial or total substitution for cement [29][30], and the search has resulted into the discovery of steel slag, an industrial waste, as a potential cementitious material [5,15,25,31].…”

Geochemical Analysis of Ilaro-Papalanto Highway Subgrade

“…Deficiencies in the properties of soil can substantially influence the stability and serviceability potential of the intending civil engineering structure. Laterite, which is a soil group, is formed under weathering systems as a product of laterization processes such as decomposition of ferroalumino-silicate minerals, leaching of the combined silica and base; and the permanent deposition of sesquioxide within the soil profiles (Odell, 2012, Adedokun et al, 2018, 2019a. Gidigasu (1976), Akpokodje (2001) and Oghenekaro et al (2014) stated that lateritic soils are products of intense weathering which are devoid of gravel-sized components and occur under tropical climatic condition leading to the accumulation of hydrated oxides of iron and aluminium.…”