MAHARASHTRA STATE BOARD OF TECHNICAL

EDUCATION, MUMBAI
A
Project Report
On

“STABILIZATION OF BLACK COTTON SOIL BY USING FLY ASH AND

COIR PITH”
Submitted by

PAWAR DNYANESHWAR BAPU (538655)

TAMBADE SHUBHAM BALNATH (538664)
GITE AKSHAY DINKAR (538656)
KAKADE SAGAR BABAJI (538638)
BORSE TUSHAR SANJAY (538657)
JAGATAP SUVARNA BALU (538648)

Under Guidance of

PROF.SHINDE R.M.

Diploma Engineering
In

CIVIL ENGINEERING
At

Department of Civil Engineering

MATOSHRI INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
DHANORE – 423401

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 Matoshri Education Society’s

MATOSHRI INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY POLYTECHNIC,

Dhanore, Tal - Yeola, Dist. - Nasik, 423401

CERTIFICATE

Certified that the project report entitled “ STABILIZATION OF BLACK

COTTON SOIL BY USING FLY ASH & COIR PITH ’’ has been successfully completed by:

PAWAR DNYANESHWAR BAPU (538655)

TAMBADE SHUBHAM BALNATH (538664)
GITE AKSHAY DINKAR (538656)
KAKADE SAGAR BABAJI (538638)
BORSE TUSHAR SANJAY (538657)
JAGATAP SUVARNA BALU (538648)

as partial fulfillment of Diploma course in Civil Engineering under the Maharashtra State
Board of Technical Education, Mumbai during the academic year 2018 - 2019.
The said work has been assessed by us and we are satisfied that the same is up to the
standard envisaged for the level of the course, and that the said work may be presented to
the external examiner.

Prof. SHINDE R.M. Prof. KHAIRNAR Y.S.

GUIDE HOD

External Examiner Prof. G.S.GUJRATHI

PRINCIPAL
Institute Code: Institute Code: - 1171

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

With deep sense of gratitude we would like to thanks all the people who have lighted our path
with their kind guidance. We are very grateful to these intellectuals who did their best to help
during our project work.
It is our proud privilege to express deep sense of gratitude to, Prof. Gujrathi G.S
Principal of Matoshri Institute of Technology Polytechnic, Dhanore, Ta -Yeola for his
comments and kind permission to complete this project. We remain indebted to Prof.
Khairnar Y.S. HOD, Civil Engineering Department for their timely suggestion and valuable
guidance. We also very thankful to Prof. Sanvatsarkar O.N. Project Co-ordinator.
We are thankful to our guide Prof. Shinde R.M. for his incredible support and defrayal
different concepts and his precious guidelines.
The special gratitude goes to all staff members, technical staff members, of Civil
Department for his expensive, excellent and precious guidance in completion of this work.
We thanks to all the colleagues for their appreciable help for our working project.

We are also thankful to our parents who have provided their wishful support for
completion of our project work successfully.
And lastly we thanks to all our friends and the people who are directly or indirectly related to
our project work.

MR. PAWAR DNYANESHWAR BAPU (538655)

MR. TAMABADE SHUBHAM BALNATH (538664)
MR. GITE AKSHAY DINKAR (538656)
MR. KAKADE SAGAR BABAJI (538638)
MR. BORSE TUSHAR SANJAY (538657)
MISS. JAGTAP SUVARNA BALU (538648)

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ABSTRACT
In India most of lands are covered with Expansive soil (mainly Black Cotton soil). The property
of this expansive soil is that they are very hard when in dry state, but they lose all of their
strength when in wet state. Due to this property of expansive soils, these soils pose problems
worldwide that serve as challenge to overcome for the Geotechnical engineers. One of the
most important aspects for construction purposes is soil stabilization, which is used widely in
foundation and road pavement constructions; this is because such stabilization improves
engineering properties of the soil. In this paper the experimental results obtained in the
laboratory on expansive soils treated with industrial waste Coir Pith (CP) & fly ash as a
stabilizer are presented. A study is carried out to check the improvements in the properties
of expansive soil with Coir Pith in varying percentages & fly ash kept in constant percentage
that is 30%. The test results such as Atterberg’s limit, SPT and UCS test obtained on black
cotton soil mixed at different proportions of Coir Pith as an admixture ranging from 2%, 4%,
6%, 8% and 10%. The max dry density (MDD) of 6% addition of coir pith is more compare to
untreated BC Soil, optimum moisture content (OMC) is reduced compare to BC Soil. The
unconfined compressive strength (UCS) for BC Soil treated with 4% CP is more as compare to
untreated BC soil.
Black cotton soil is typical expansive soil have inherent properties of shrinking when
they are dried and Swelling water is absorbed. For all structure, the foundation is a very
important and it has to be strong to support the entire structure. In order for the foundation
to be strong, the soil around its plays a very critical role. To work on soils we need to have
proper knowledge about their properties and factor which affect their behavior. Expansive
soil always create problems more for lightly loaded structures than moderately loaded
structures. In this paper the experimental result obtain in the laboratory on expansive soils
treated with industrial waste coir pith (CP) treated with 5% of NaOH as stabilizer are
presented. A study is carried out to check the improvements in the properties of expansive
soil with fly ash and coir pith in various percentages.

Keywords - Black cotton soil, Coir pith, Expansive soil, Fly ash, stabilization.

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 LIST OF FIGURES

Sr.No. Content Page no.

1. 1.1 Major soil type in India 7
2. 1.2 Manufacturing of coir pith 10
3. 3.1 Collection of soil sample 22
4. 3.2 Fly ash 24
5. 3.3 Coir pith 24
6. 3.4 Specific gravity test 27
7. 3.5 Liquid limit test 28
8. 3.6 Plastic limit 29
9. 3.7 Shrinkage limit test 30

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 TABLE

Sr.No Content Page No.

1. 1.1 Nutrient value of coir pith 9
2. 1.2 Physical properties of fly ash 12
3. 1.3 Chemical properties of fly ash 13
4. 3.1 Geotechnical properties of black cotton soil 23
5. 3.2 Proportion of fly ash and coir pith in soil 25
6. 4.1 Specific gravity test result 31
7. 4.2 Liquid limit test 32

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 INDEX

Sr.No Content Page No.

1. Introduction 1
1.1 Opening remark 1
1.2 Soil 1
1.3 Types of soil 1
1.4 Soil stabilization 3
1.4.1 Benefit of Soil stabilization 5
1.5 Black cotton soil 6
1.6 Coir pith 8
1.6.1 Manufacturing process of coir pith 9
1.6.2 Properties of coir pith 10
1.7 Fly ash 11
1.7.1 Generation and Disposal 13
1.8 Objective of study 14
2. Literature Review 16
2.1 Opening remark 16
2.2 Research Work 16
3. Materials and methodology 22
3.1 Opening remark 22
3.2 Materials 22
3.2.1 Black cotton soil 22
3.2.2 Fly ash 23
3.2.3 Coir pith 24
3.3 Methodology adopted 25
3.4 Test adopted 25
4. Result And Discussion 31
4.1 Opening remark 31
4.2 Test result 31
5. Conclusion 34
References 35

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