Soft clay improvement using eggshell powder as a sustainable material.

Recycling recently is the talk of the world in order not to pollute the environment. Nowadays, million tons of agricultural wastes are produced annually like eggshells (Abou-Hadid 2008). An experimental work program was done including different experiments like Atterberg limits, compaction, triaxial and consolidation tests. Soft clay soil samples are blended with 2 to 20% of eggshell powder with 2% increment. The findings revealed that eggshell powder addition reduced the plasticity of soil and increased the maximum dry density. Moreover, the shear strength was found to be increased with the increase of the eggshell powder content. It was found to be increased by 176% at 6% eggshell powder addition and then this value of the shear strength started to be decreased with the increase of eggshell powder. Finally, the void ratio of the soft clay is found to be decreased with the increase of the eggshell powder addition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]