Impact of Cyclic Wetting and Drying on Swelling Behaviour of Stabilised and Non-Stabilished Soil- A Review Study

Abstract

Expansive soils in semi-arid climates must be mitigated to minimize potential structural damage to the
overlying structures due to swell-shrink behavior caused by climatic changes. The expansive soil in this study was
amended by sand which reduced the swell-shrink potential significantly. Increase in the construction activities has
enhanced the demand for aggregates which lead to the liberation of huge amount of quarry dust consequently. Highway
construction is one of the prominent fields for the use of quarry dust in abundance. However, presence of expansive soil
in the most of integral part of India leads to questioning on the suitability of quarry dust for pavement construction.
Hence, an attempt has been made to understand the potential of quarry dust cushion to prevent seasonal swell–shrink in
expansive soil. Comprehensive studies of linear swell and cyclic swell–shrink of expansive soil with the use of lime
treated quarry dust cushion of different thickness have been carried out. The results revealed that increase in the
thickness of lime treated quarry dust cushion significantly reduces the swell strain of the expansive soil. The present
review study proposed that impact of cyclic wetting and drying on swelling behavior of stabilished and non-stabilished
soils.