Efficacy of Sodium Carbonate and Calcium Carbonate in Stabilizing a Black Cotton Soil

The problem of damage to structures in expansive soils is world wide. These soils are very often referred as black cotton soils. The properties of black cotton soil may be improved to make the soil suitable for construction purposes. There are several techniques to improve the soil properties like sand cushions, CNS layer techniques, sand columns, stone columns, vibration techniques and by adding chemicals etc. Among these, chemical stabilizing is more expensive than other types of stabilization methods. But the main advantage of it is that setting time and curing time can be controlled. The efficacy of sodium carbonate and calcium carbonate is stabilizing a black cotton soil is presented in this paper. The efficacy of calcium carbonate is much better than sodium carbonate from strength and stability point of view.