STABILIZATION OF DUNE SAND MIXED WITH LDPE STRIPS FOR DESIGN OF EMBANKMENT IN CONSTRUCTION OF ROADS

Dune sand is widely present in western Rajasthan, India. It is loose in state, cohesion less and thus has a very low compressive strength. To make use of dune sand as a base material for construction of embankments for roads, it should be reinforced by mixing LDPE (low density polyethylene) strips in it. This study presents a simple way of recycling LDPE waste in the field of civil engineering as reinforcing material. Reinforced soil construction is an efficient and reliable technique for improving the strength and stability of soils. The technique is used in a variety of applications, such as, construction of road embankment. This paper describes an experimental study on mixing LDPE waste strips of size 5 mm X 5 mm with dune sand. The LDPE waste strips were mixed in percentage with dune sand as 0%, 0.05%, 0.06%, 0.7%, 0.8%, 0.9% and 1.0%. With this mix compositions, all the direct shear tests (DST) and variable head permeability tests were conducted at different dry densities arrived from standard proctor test as 1.57 gm/cc, 1.62 gm/cc and 1.66 gm/cc (M.D.D.). The results and conclusions were summed up which shows that use of LDPE waste in dune sand in an appropriate amount really improves the strength characteristics of the dune sand so that it becomes usable as a suitable material for construction of embankments for roads.