Sustainable Use of Solid Waste as Additives in Soil Stabilization: A State-of-Art Review

Abstract

Expansive soils usually face problems related to excessive expansion and contraction, high water retaining capacity, poor drainage, high compressibility and poor load transfer mechanism. The rate of failures in these soils is relatively high and these soils are considered as most vulnerable for construction purposes. The amendment of using waste materials in soil stabilization serves the purpose of limiting the high volume of waste generated from different sources. This in turn also restricts the consumption of natural resources which are conventionally used to stabilize the soil. Out of several waste materials generated from various sectors: agricultural, industrial, construction and demolition and mining, twenty-one highly generated but underutilized waste materials have been designated for review in this study. Their utilization as additives in soil stabilization as a partial or full replacement of conventional/traditional additives has been appraised in the present study. Among the various agricultural waste products considered, palm oil fuel ash (POFA) has been found to be the most effective with the optimum dose of 10 % -30 % in soil stabilization. Cement kiln dust (CKD) and iron ore tailings (IOT) with 50 % lime were found out to be effective with the optimum dosage of 20 % and 16 %, respectively. C&D waste was applicable in the range of 10 % -24 % in the presented research work owing to the variable characteristics of the source. This paper would be helpful to industry persons in adopting alternative additives and researchers in knowing the areas which require further research.