Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Dr M T Prathap Kumar
Senior Professor and R&D Coordinator
compressive
I. INTRODUCTION
Bio-enzyme stabilized soil is used in sub-grade and
sub-bases which provides adequate strength and stability to the
pavement structure from below. In certain situations, locally
available red soil which is predominantly kaolin based may
have poor bearing capacity due to loosely placed fills, high
saturation levels that may occur during rainy condition, etc. In
such cases, highway engineers face a problem to design
pavements as the soil may not have adequate CBR. It may also
lead to poor performance of pavements on the long run, even
though the red soil itself is non-problematic soil. In such
situation, bio-enzyme may prove to be most economical
stabilizer to increase the strength of the sub grade. A wide
variety of bio-enzymes are available in market as a new
chemical soil stabilizer. Bio-enzymes are organic, liquid,
natural, non-toxic, non-flammable non-corrosive and eco
friendly which are obtained from fermentation of organic
matter. These are easy, safe and convenient to handle. Terrazyme is one such bio-enzyme which has special formulation to
alter the engineering properties of soil. Soil stabilized with
terra-zyme is used in sub-bases and sub-grade which provides
adequate support to pavement structure.
Addition of bio-enzymes is found to reduce the
thickness of adsorbed water. Soil having clay particles when
mixed with water have positively charged ions around the clay
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NOVATEUR PUBLICATIONS
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS IN ENGINEERING, TECHNOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT [IJRPETM]
VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1, JULY-2015
WWW.IJRPET.ORG
densities to study its effect on compaction and strength
III. METHODOLOGY
Red
Colour
Particle Size
Distribution
% of Clay and Silt
% of Sand and Gravel
Specific Gravity
Atterbergs Limits
Liquid Limit
Plastic Limit
Plasticity Index
Mini Compaction Test
Maximum Dry Density
(kN/m3)
Optimum Moisture
Content (%)
71
29
2.67
31.5
11.6
19.9
19.4
16.5
B. Terra-zyme Used
A commercially available bio-enzyme under the trade name
Terra-zyme is used for the present study. It is natural, non-toxic;
non-corrosive which is obtained from fermentation of plant
based organic matter. It is easy and safe to handle. Three
recommended dosage levels by the supplier which are suitable
for most of the soils have been adopted to study the effect of
dosage levels on the various properties of soil. By considering
200ml for bulk volume 2.0 m3(D1), 2.5 m3(D2) and 3.0 m3(D3)
of soil, Terra-zyme was added for three different cases i.e. dry
side of OMC, at OMC and wet side of OMC obtained from
compaction test. The sample calculation of Terrazyme dosage
D1 corresponding to properties on dry side of OMC is as shown
below:
CASE 1: Dry side of OMC
Bulk density of Red soil= 2.1049 g/cc
Bulk density= Weight/Volume
Therefore, Weight= Bulk density*Volume
For Dosage 1 (D1)
200 ml for 2.0 m3 of soil = 2.1049*2*1000 = 4210 kg of soil
Therefore, for 1 kg of soil = 0.047 ml of Enzyme
TERRAZYME DOSAGE
(in ml for 1kg of Soil)
D1
D2
D3
0.047
0.0380 0.0316
0.0442 0.0354 0.0294
0.0461 0.0368 0.0307
Page 2 of 3
NOVATEUR PUBLICATIONS
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS IN ENGINEERING, TECHNOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT [IJRPETM]
VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1, JULY-2015
WWW.IJRPET.ORG
Fig 5: Variation o f UCS at Different Terra-Zyme Dosage for Soil at Wet Side
Of OMC
V CONCLUSIONS
Fig 3 Variation o f UCS at Different Terra-Zyme Dosage for Soil at Dry Side
of OMC
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