Effect of Garment Wastes on Swell-Consolidation Characteristics of Expansive Soil

Expansive soil is available throughout the world. In semi-arid country like Bangladesh, this type of soil is found almost everywhere. Expansive soil is considered to be problematic due to its high swelling potential. This type of soil exhibits large volumetric changes when its water content changes. This is highly detrimental to civil engineering infrastructures. This experimental study investigates the effect of the inclusion of garment wastes into expansive soil on its swell-consolidation characteristics. Due to the rapid growth of garment industries in Bangladesh, a huge amount of garment wastes is produced every year. The use of such waste materials to improve the swell-consolidation characteristics would be significant. To determine the effect of the inclusion of garment wastes into expansive soil, one dimensional swell-consolidation tests were conducted in the laboratory. Two types of expansive soil collected from Godagari, Rajshahi and Gazipur, Dhaka were used in the study. Various proportion of garment wastes by weight of soil (0.5%, 1%, and 2%) were mixed with the expansive soil and the samples were subjected to one dimensional swell-consolidation tests. The test results show that the inclusion of garment wastes has significant effect on the swell-consolidation characteristics of expansive soil. It is noticed that the inclusion of garment wastes decreases the heave, swelling potentials and vertical swelling pressures of expansive soil. Moreover, the coefficient of compressibility and the secondary compression index decrease with the increase of the inclusion of garment wastes into expansive soil.

Keywords:Expansive soil; Swell potential; Vertical swelling pressures; Secondary consolidation; Garment wastes