ADDIS ABABA SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE AND CIVIL ENGINEERING EVALUATING THE SUITABILITY OF LATERITE SOIL STABILIZED WITH DEMOLISHED MATERIALS AS A ROAD SUB BASE BY HIKMA ABDELA DECEMBER, 2017 ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA Evaluating the suitability of laterite soil stabilized with demolished material as a road sub base ADDIS ABABA SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY UNIVERSITY Addis Ababa, Ethiopia EVALUATING THE SUITABILITY OF LATERITE SOIL STABILIZED WITH DEMOLISHED MATERIALS AS A ROAD SUB BASE A thesis submitted to the department of civil engineering, college of architecture and civil engineering in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree in masters of Science in civil engineering (Major in Geotechnical Engineering) By Hikma Abdela Advisor: Dr. Siraj Mulugeta DECEMBER, 2017 Evaluating the suitability of laterite soil stabilized with demolished material as a road sub base ADDIS ABABA SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY UNIVERSITY APPROVED BY BOARD OF EXAMINERS APPROVAL PAGE This MSc thesis entitled with evaluating the suitability of laterite soil stabilized with demolished materials as a road sub base has been approved by the following examiners in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Science in Geotechnical Engineering. Date of defense: October 4, 2017 1. Dr. Siraj Mulugeta ______________ _____________ Advisor Signature Date 2. Dr. Sisay Demeku ______________ ____________ Internal Examiner Signature Date 3. Dr. Argaw Asha ______________ ___________ External Examiner Signature Date 4. Dr.Melaku Sisay ______________ _____________ ERA PG, programme Signature Date Coordinator 5. Dr. Brook Abate _____________ ____________ Dean, College of Architecture & Signature Date Civil Engineering 6. Mr.Simon G/Egziabheer _____________ ____________ Head Civil Engineering Signature Date Department Evaluating the suitability of laterite soil stabilized with demolished material as a road sub base DECLARATION Hereby declare that the work which is being presented in this thesis entitles “evaluating the suitability of laterite soil stabilized with demolished materials as a road sub base” is original work of my own, has not been presented for a degree in any university and that all sources of materials used for this thesis duly acknowledge. Name: Hikma Abdela Signature: Place: Addis Ababa Science and Technology University College of Architecture and Civil Engineering Geotechnical Engineering Date: December, 2017 I Evaluating the suitability of laterite soil stabilized with demolished material as a road sub base ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my almighty Allah (God) who is always with me in each and every step of my life. I wish to express my sincere and deepest gratitude to my advisor Dr.Siraj Mulugeta for all his limitless guidance, support and continuous supervision throughout my research work. I would like to thank Ethiopian roads authority and Addis Ababa science and Technology University for making me part of this postgraduate scholarship program. I gratefully acknowledge the municipality of Burayu town during collection of soil samples from different location. I am very grateful to BEST consulting engineers for their geotechnical laboratory. My thanks also goes to best consulting laboratory stuff Ato Getachewu, Ato Habtamu, Ato Nigussie and Ato Daniel for assisting me through all laboratory investigation work. I am also very grateful to geological survey of Ethiopia during geochemical test. I express my sincere gratitude to Dr.Trufat and my friends Timaj Abdulahi, Semira Mohammed, Ruth Demissie and Medina Nassir for giving me relevant reference document and suggesting valuable critical comments. My sincere thank goes to my precious husband Abdu, during collection of samples, whose commitment to the work and the vision makes this research possible. Finally from the deepest of my heart, I would like to thank my family and friend’s Nebat Mohammed and Afework Hishe, for their care, support and encouragement; I am really grateful! My deepest appreciation goes to all those names (s) may not appear here. II Evaluating the suitability of laterite soil stabilized with demolished material as a road sub base TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION ............................................................................................................................... i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................................ ii LIST OF FIGURE ........................................................................................................................... vi LIST OF TABLE ............................................................................................................................ vii LIST OF SYMBOLS AND ABBREVIATION ..............................................................................viii ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................................... ix Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................... 1 1.1 General .................................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Statement of the problem........................................................................................................ 4 1.3. Objective ................................................................................................................................ 4 1.3.1 General objective.............................................................................................................. 4 1.3.2 Specific objective .............................................................................................................. 5 1.4 Scope of the study ................................................................................................................... 5 1.5 Structure of the thesis ............................................................................................................. 5 Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................................... 6 2.1. General ................................................................................................................................... 6 2.1.1 Origin and formation of residual soil .............................................................................. 6 2.1.2 Classification of laterite soil ............................................................................................. 8 2.1.3 Index tests on laterite soil ............................................................................................... 11 2.2 Laterites as construction materials ...................................................................................... 13 2.3 Stabilization of soils .............................................................................................................. 14 2.3.1 Mechanical stabilization................................................................................................. 16 2.3.2 Chemical stabilization .................................................................................................... 16 2.4 Related works on stabilization of lateritic soil in road construction ................................... 17 2.4.1 Stabilization of laterite soil with chemicals stabilizer ................................................... 18 2.4.2 Stabilization of lateritic soil with marble dust ............................................................... 19 2.4.3 General description of demolished materials ................................................................ 19 2.4.4 Application of the construction demolition waste for improving the performance of sub grade and sub base layers ................................................................................................ 19 2.4.5 Construction of rural roads using construction and demolished waste materials ....... 20 2.4.6 Review on stabilization of clayey soil using fines obtained from demolished concrete structures ................................................................................................................................ 20 III Evaluating the suitability of laterite soil stabilized with demolished material as a road sub base Chapter 3 MATERIALS AND METHODS .................................................................................. 22 3.1 General description of the study area .................................................................................. 22 3.2 Sample description ................................................................................................................ 23 3.2.1 Lateritic soil description ................................................................................................ 23 3.2.2 Demolished material description ................................................................................... 24 3.3 Sample preparation .............................................................................................................. 25 3.4 Laboratory test interpretation and test procedure .............................................................. 25 3.4.1 Mineralogical and Geochemical tests of samples .......................................................... 25 3.4.2 Natural moisture content ..............................................................................................