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Analytical Investigation on Isolated Foundation Improvement Using Quarry

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Laksiri Pradeep Thanthirige Ushan Kavindu Imanka

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 International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 6, Issue 1, January 2016)
Analytical Investigation on Isolated Foundation Improvement
Using Quarry Dust
Thanthirige Laksiri Pradeep1, Ushan Kavindu Imanka2
1
Department of Civil Engineering, the Open University of Sri Lanka, Nawala, Sri Lanka
2
Departmen of Civil Engineering, Kingston University, London, United Kingdom
Abstract— Soil has many different properties which use to
make the soil more useful for various engineering purposes.
Soil improvements have one example for combining of several
properties of soil and make it more usable in geotechnical
engineering application today. The soil mixing is one of best,
cost effective and comprehensive to improve the solid
properties in order to sustain for the long term solution in
engineering. By the way, whatever the design proposed should
be made as economical solution as it’s no longer accepted
uneconomical design in modern world.
As well foundation stability is a one of the major character
which may influence to the stability of the super structure and
causing hazards during bad weather periods. Most of
dwellings are subjected to being cracked due to instability of
foundations. The quarry dust, a by-product from the crushing
process has utilized to improve the properties of laterite soil
and thereby improve the stability of the foundation.
Conversely quarry dust has high bearing capacity and the
availability also takes higher place. The laterite soil type
consist more iron and aluminium, formed in wet and hot
tropical areas. Mostly all laterite soil types take rusty-red
because of iron oxides. The properties of laterite soils are
depend on their parent rock. So the properties can be varied
from place to place. In this particular research project quarry
dust and Ordinary Portland Cement have mixed with laterite
soil with different prepositions of three soil and small amount
of Ordinary Portland Cement and analyse the results with
different loads by using sophisticated finite element software
named PLAXIS V8.
Keywords— Bearing capacity, Isolated footings, Ordinary
Portland Cement, Soil mixing, Soil Properties
I. INTRODUCTION
This research has been conducted to improve the bearing
capacity of the weak soil by mixing query dust to the
existing soil. The residential house used to design at least
for the two story and required foundation area (width and
length) comparatively become larger in weak soil
condition. So, research has been carried out to improve the
bearing capacity to make economical design for the
isolated footing where bearing capacity is not in acceptable
level for the design.
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Most of buildings are tending to collapse or being cracks
due to improper designs and less consideration about soil
and foundation design. The soil investigation and analysis
through the right parameter at site condition is more
important to do the proper foundation design which is
rarely practice for the low rise building. The foundation
stability is a major factor that influence to the stability of
the entire building which is linked sub structure and super
structure where soil-foundation interaction take in place.
The foundation on weak soils should be lead to
uneconomical and hence the importance of having
economical and safe foundation design is one of the key
element in geotechnical engineering. The main objective of
this particular research is to improve and stabilize the
strength of the soil properties using quarry dust, cement to
improve foundation stability.
II. LITERATURE REVIEW
When consider about the properties of materials, quarry
dust is a by-product of rubble. When rubbles subjects to
crushing, quarry dust comes as a by-product. When
consider about the material properties of quarry dust, it has
high compressive and a high level of carrying capacity [1].
Under this circumstances when quarry dust mixed with
soil, the mixed soil can behave as a highly strengthened
material, which can be incurred more load rather than
unmixed soil. [1] Onyelowe Ken C.,2012 has stated in
ARPN Journal of Earth Sciences that quarry dust have
maximum density, strength, frost resistance and drainage.
The physical and chemical properties of quarry dust are
varying with the nature of the rock and the time take to
weathering action. The optimum moisture content for the
quarry dust is still on research level and it is basically
depend on the parameters and grain size distribution.
However, some of the research have been developed the
empirical proportion based on experimental data to find out
the optimum moisture content [2].
The application of the quarry dust in construction
industry has been significantly increased over the last
decades in construction industry basically.
 International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 6, Issue 1, January 2016)
Particularly on road, ground improvements and cement Sarvade and Nayak, (2014) have done the research on
paste are few of them among where engineers used to “the utilization of quarry dust to improve the geotechnical
accept for the standard of construction after the carefully properties of lithomargic clay” [6]. They used quarry dust
analyses and evaluation of the [3]. as an improving material and the research dedicated to
The cement can be basically categorized in to the two show the improvement of bearing capacity by adding
which are hydraulic and non-hydraulic cement. Most of the quarry dust to the soil in terms of shear parameters. So,
ordinary Portland cement widely used in construction they also suggested to use quarry dust to improve the weak
industry in hydraulic manner which is active presents of soil where isolated footing are encouraged.
water and air. Kalumba [7] has done a research for “Improve the soil
The most of the foundation design guide line has been using waste material of plastic shopping bags” to give the
implied to determine the degree of failures and it’s resisting solution for the non-degradable material. The proposed
capacity for the overturning, bearing capacity and sliding method is to use the sredded bag to reinforce the soils layer
for the entire building safety. Since, the settlement of the at the level of foundation. So, optimum ratio has been
foundation could be caused to entire building damage and it found around 0.4 after the several sample tests done.
should be respected to the design code of practice adopted
to country. The foundation design based on BS 8110/EC2
and it is engineers responsible to practice the safety factors
and other guide line such as punching shear with the
parameter which are taken from the soil test.
Ahmed and El-Mashad [4] have proposed that the degree
of compaction of soil can be improved by using cement
kiln dust (CKD). So, the research has been found that,
lateral pressure can be significantly reduced after threating
of soil with CKD. Further investigation has been extended
to check the primary settlement and secondary settlement
of the soil strata after applying the active pressure trough
the vertical load. Comparatively, it has been shown that
low in primary settlement and the depth of the foundation FIGURE I: COLLECTED SOIL SAMPLE
may be reduced due to this reason and could be introduced
more economical design for the low rise building by the
results obtained from the proctor compaction test.
Moreover, Steven Owurre [5] has been carried out a
research which is basically used recycle rubber material for
the soil improvement to prevent the liquefaction of the soil
at integration plane. There are two main concern during his
research to used rubber as recycled material in order
provide the solution for green building concept. By the way
elastic capacity of the rubber and energy storage capacity
benefited to liquefaction in loose soil strata for the design
of footing.
During his study, the particle test and density test have
been carried out to find out the results of the experimental
programme. Five sample of rubber particle mixture with FIGURE II: QUARRY DUST SAMPLE
sand (0%,10%,15%,20%, and 30%) have been tested at the However, using it is quite difficult to apply the
laboratory to investigate optimum combination. After, he mechanism proposed to reinforce the soil and it hasn’t
has revealed that the combination of sand and rubber popular due to this reason.
particle has significant benefits in the process of soil
improvement.

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 International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 6, Issue 1, January 2016)
III. MATERIAL AND METHOD A. Settlement analysis of laetrile soil stabilized with query
A. Soil dust
The sample has been collected from plant shown in Fig. The settlement of the soil strata is analysis for 1.5m x
I has low bearing capacity and high level of ground water 1.5m isolated footing. In order to perform the calculation,
table. The proposed study basically focus on the places the geometry has to be divided into finite element on
where hills with high water table. All the material and test square footing was performed to understand the
are good treated and tests were conducted at well-equipped deformation bias within the soil mass. The analysis is
laboratory under the standards. The code of practice has performed using the finite element program PLAXIS V8
been taken in account based on British Standard and by the software package (Fig. IV). Further, few models have been
way it has been compared to ACI. However, the selected analysis to get proper comparison through the stress
sample properties has been withdrawn through the distribution. In addition, the control tested has been
experimental programme to conduct analytical conducted to compare the all the results with low loading
investigation. condition. Except the soil improvement properties, other
parameters have been kept constant for the analysis.
B. Quarry dust
The sample of the quarry dust is shown in Fig. II and the
extended sieve analysis results are shown in Fig III
respectively.
C. Sample separation and testing
A detailed laboratory investigation has been carried out
to study the influence of quarry dust on laterite soil and the
behaviour of stabilized soil. The soil for stabilization has
mixed with different percentages of quarry dust (10%, 20%
and 30%) constant percentage of cement (4%) maintained
for the all samples tested. The mixture has been carefully
analysis and done the test to find out the properties and
FIGURE III: GRAIN SIZE DISTRIBUTION OF SELECTED QUARRY DUST
parameters. SAMPLE

IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The summary of results obtained for stabilizing laterite
soil with quarry dust (0%, 10%, 20% and 30%) and cement
(4%) is shown in Table I respectively. All the ratios have
been considered on weights basis. The results revealed that
the geotechnical parameters of the laterite soil have
improved substantially by the addition of quarry dust and
cement with various mix proportions. This is particularly
because of the high shear strength of the quarry dust. There
is a good improvement in the consolidation values of the
laterite soil blend with the quarry dust because of its
variation in water content does not seriously affected its
desirable properties, good permeability and also the good FIGURE IV: FINITE ELEMENT MODEL-PLAXIS V8
permeability.

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 International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 6, Issue 1, January 2016)
TABLE I From Table III and Fig. V, it is evident that when the
GEOTECHNICAL PROPERTIES OF THE TESTED SAMPLE percentages of quarry dust increases while settlement
WITH QUARRY DUST
getting decreases. The percentage of quarry dust deduct in
Percentage of quarry dust
added
the values of the settlement of 1.5m x 1.5m footing on the
Geotechnical Parameter
0% 10% 20% 30%
laterite soil stabilized with 10%, 20% and 30%, quarry dust
for 200kPa load intensity is presented in Table IV. From
Liquid limit (%) 60.00 25.30 43.50 40.30
Table III and Fig. V, it is evident that when the percentages
Plastic limit (%) 36.80 34.50 28.00 27.10 of quarry dust increases the settlement getting decreases.
Shrinkage limit (%) 29.80 28.40 26.50 25.30 The percentage of quarry dust deduct in the values of the
Plasticity Index (%) 23.20 17.80 15.50 13.20 settlement of 1.5m x 1.5m footing on the laterite soil
Maximum dry density (γd)max stabilized with 10%, 20% and 30%, quarry dust for 200kPa
15.70 16.30 16.70 17.20
(kN/m3) load intensity is presented in Table IV.
Optimum moisture content (%) 23.00 22.00 19.90 17.30

UU: Angle of Internal friction, 21.00 25.00 26.00 28.00

φ
UU: cohesion value, c (kPa) 33.34 32.37 29.4 22.54

B. Settlement analysis of laetrile soil stabilized with query

dust
The settlement analysis of the laterite soil and the laterite
soil stabilized with 10%, 20% and 30% of quarry dust and
4% of cement, for 1.5m x 1.5m footing is carried out using
the Plaxis V8 and the obtained results have been plotted in
Table I, Table II and Fig. V. The basic purpose of this
analysis is to identify the critical settlement on isolated
footing foundation improved with quarry dust. The primary
settlement has been determined using the analytical
software which is given the perfect settlement based on
contours. However, the section has been design to avoid the
FIGURE V: SETTLEMENT VS LOAD INTENSITY
punching shear effect of the isolated footing to avoid the
failure the section prior to settle.
TABLE II
PARAMETER RANGE CONSIDERED TO FINITE ELEMENT MODELLING

Input Parameters

Angle of
Sample Cohesion Modulus of
MDD OMC Internal
Elasticity
(kNm-3) (%) Friction
(kNm-2) (MPa)
(φo)

Laterite 15.7 23.0 33.34 21 3.53

Soil
Soil+10% 16.3 22.0 32.37 25 3.73
QD
Soil+20% 16.7 19.9 29.40 26 4.77
QD
Soil+30%Q 17.2 17.3 22.54 28 5.32
D

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 International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 6, Issue 1, January 2016)
TABLE III The percentage increase in the values of load carrying
SETTLEMENT PARAMETERS RELEVANT TO TESTED capacity of 1.5m x 1.5m footing on the laterite soil
QUARRY DUST STABILIZER
stabilized with at 10%, 20% and 30%, 40% quarry dust and
Settlement in mm % Decrease in 4% of cement for 10mm permissible settlement is
at 200 kPa settlement calculated and tabulated in Table V.
Soil 14.052 -
Soil + 10% QD 12.930 8.0%
Soil + 20% QD 9.524 32.0%
Soil + 30% QD 8.652 35.5%

TABLE IV
PERCENTAGE OF DECREASE SETTLEMENT

Load carrying
capacity for % increase in
permissible load bearing
settlement of capacity
10mm

Soil 146 -

Soil + 10% QD 158 8%

Soil + 20% QD 206 41%

FIGURE VI: SETTLEMENT CONTOURS FOR THE LATERITE SOIL
Soil + 30% QD 225 54%

TABLE V
PERCENTAGE OF INCREASE LOAD CARRYING CAPACITY

Load Settlement (mm)

Intensity
in kPa 0% 10% 20% 30%

50 3.296 3.114 2.360 2.045

100 6.829 6.228 4.721 4.090

150 10.244 9.341 7.081 6.146

200 14.052 12.930 9.524 8.652

250 19.541 16.599 12.775 11.870

FIGURE VII: SETTLEMENT CONTOURS FOR THE LATERITE SOIL+10%

According to the above Table IV, the behaviour of
improved soil can be considered as feasible solution
because of the obtained values for percentage of decrease,
in settlement under the 150kPa load is getting increase.
QUARRY DUST+ 4% CEMENT
The PLAXIS V8 sophisticated software gives the final
settlement contours as per the given geotechnical
parameters and the colour shadings indicate the total
displacement of the isolated footing on the soil strata.

64
 International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 6, Issue 1, January 2016)
FIGURE VIII: SETTLEMENT CONTOURS FOR THE LATERITE SOIL+20%
QUARRY DUST+ 4% CEMENT
FIGURE IX: SETTLEMENT CONTOURS FOR THE LATERITE SOIL+30%
QUARRY DUST+ 4% CEMENT
The settlement contours for 1.5m x 1.5m footing size at
200kPa load intensity for the laterite soil, the laterite soil
stabilized with 10% of quarry dust and 4% of cement, the
laterite soil stabilized with 20% of quarry dust and 4% of
cement and the laterite soil stabilized with 30% of quarry
dust and 4% of cement are presented in Figs.VI, VII, VII
and IX respectively. The indexes of the graphic are show in
m on right hand side for the references. It is also the
parallels evidence of stress distribution of the sections.
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V. CONCLUSIONS
By its nature quarry dust has the potential to incur high
load capacity with less displacement. The interaction
behaviour of quarry dust and its geotechnical
characterization can be leaded to viable solutions for the
foundation design. The use of quarry dust in domestic
construction is economical rather foundation to be designed
to meet the codal provision.
 After stabilization of the soil using the quarry dust and
cement, the percentage deduction in liquid limit has only
about 33% when 30% of quarry dust added. The
plasticity index has been reduced by 43.1% to 30% of
quarry dust and 4% of cement addition presence.
 For 30% quarry dust and 4% of cement, the angle of
internal friction has been affirmed an improvement of
33.4%. Meanwhile the value of cohesion has been
decreased by 32.4%.
 The finite element analysis with 10%, 20% and 30%
quarry dust and 4% of cement presents, indicated
alleviation in the settlement and excrescence in the load
carrying capacity.
 The settlement can be significantly reduced with the aid
of quarry dust, cement and by the way increase the
bearing capacity of the soil. If the percentages of quarry
dust getting increase, the settlement of the footing
decrease and it can be more controlled using high level
of cement.
 The improved soil can be used for domestic construction
(Medium scale) in order to reduce the settlement and the
instability of the existing formed soil.
REFERENCES
[1] Onyelowe, K. C., Okafor, F. O., and Nwachukwu, D. G. 2012.
Geophysical Use Of Quarry Dust (As Admixture) As Applied To
Soil Stabilization And Modification-A Review. ARPN Journal of
Earth Sciences, 6-8.
[2] Chandana Sukesh, C., Krishna, K. B., and Teja, S. S. 2013. Partial
Replacement of Sand with Quarry Dust in Concrete. International
Journal of Innovative Technology and Exploring Engineering
(IJITEE), 254-258.
[3] Gowda, V. P., Dinesh, muchandi, K., and Avinash. 2014.
“Experimental Study On Replacement Of Fine Aggregate By Quarry
Dust In Concrete”, International Journal of Structural and Civil
Engineering Research, 110-117.
[4] Hashad A and El-Mashad M. 2014.“Assessment of soil mixing with
cement kiln dust to reduce soil lateral pressure compared to othersoil
improvement methods”, pp 169-175, Available online at
www.sciencedirect.com
[5] Owurre S. 2013. “Use of Recycled Rubber Tyres for Geotechnical
Applications” published, BEng (Hons) Dissertation, Kingston:
Kingston University
 International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 6, Issue 1, January 2016)
[6] Sarvade, Nayak, S., P.G., and Gowda, D. 2010. “Engineering [7] Kalumba, D. 2010. Using Shredded Plastic Shopping Bags Wastes
properties of shedi soil before and after quarry dust stabilization”, In Soil Improvement. International Conference on Sustainable Built
Indian Highways, Indian Roads Congress, pp39-46. Environment (ICSBE-2010), (pp. 257-261). Kandy.

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