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EFFECT OF BIO ENZYMES ON PROPERTIES OF CLAYEY SOIL

CHAPTER-1

INTRODUCTION

The idea of using enzyme for stabilization was developed from the application of enzyme products
used to treat soil in order to improve horticultural applications. A modification to the process
produced a material, which was suitable for stabilization of poor ground for road. When added to a
soil, the enzymes increased the wetting and bonding capacity of the soil particles.

An enzyme is by definition an organic catalyst that speeds up a chemical reaction, that otherwise
would happen at much slower rate, without becoming a part of the end product. Since the enzymes
do not becomes the part of end product and are not consumed by the reaction, a very small amount of
bio enzyme is required for soil stabilization. They are organic molecules that catalyze very specific
chemical reactions if conditions are conducive to the reaction they facilitate. For an enzyme to be
active in a soil, it must have mobility to reach at the reaction site. The pore fluid available in the soil
mass provides means for mobility of the molecules of bio-enzyme, the specific soil chemistry
provides the reaction site, and time is needed for the enzyme to diffuse to the reaction site. An
enzyme would stay active in a soil until there are no more reactions to catalyze. Enzymes would be
expected to be very soil specific.

Each enzyme is specifically tailored to promote a chemical reaction within or between other
molecules. The enzymes themselves are unchanged by these reactions. They serve as a host for the
other molecules, greatly accelerating the rate of normal chemical and physical reactions. The enzyme
allows

soil materials to become more easily wet and more densely compacted. They also improve the
chemical bonding between soil particles and creating a more permanent structure that is more
resistant to weathering, water penetration and wear and tear. Some information about commonly
available bio-enzyme products and their probable stabilization mechanism are discussed in following
points.

A large part of central India and a portion of South India are covered with Black Cotton soils. These
soils are residual deposits formed from basalt or trap rocks. Black cotton soils are clays of high
plasticity. They contain essentially the clay mineral montmorillonite, which is the most unstable clay
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mineral, thus the soils have high shrinkage and swelling characteristics. The sharing strength of the
soil is extremely low, is highly compressible and has very low bearing capacity. It is very difficult to
work with this soil, as do not posses sufficient strength to support the loads imposed upon them
either during construction or during the service life of the structure. For better performance of
structures built on such soils, the performance characteristics of such soils need to be improved. The
poor engineering performance of such soils has forced Engineers to attempt to improve the
engineering properties of poor quality soils. There are various methods that could be used to improve
the performance of poor quality soils. These methods range from replacing it with a good quality soil
to methods that involve complex chemical process. The choice of a particular method depends
mainly on the type of soil to be improved, its characteristics and the type and degree of improvement
desired in a particular application. Recently bio-enzymes have emerged as a new chemical for soil
stabilization. Bio-enzymes are chemical, organic, and liquid concentrated substances which are used
to improve the stability of soil sub-grade for pavement structures. Bio Enzyme is convenient to use,
safe, effective and dramatically improves road quality. The stabilization of soil with bio-enzyme is a
revolutionary technique which becoming popular worldwide. Recently there are many bio-enzymes
available for soil stabilization such as renolith, Perma-Zyme, Terra-Zyme, Fujibeton etc. These
enzymes have been proven to be very effective and economical. Another advantage of the bio-
enzyme is that these are environment friendly. When these bio-enzymes are mixed with soil they
alter its engineering properties. Their efficiency depends upon the amount of dose, type of soil
available and field conditions. The use of bio-enzyme in soil stabilization is not very popular due to
lack of awareness between engineers and non availability of standardized data. However, recently
some bio-enzyme stabilized roads were constructed in various parts of India, which are performing
very well

1.1 AIM

To determine the effect of bio-enzymes on properties of clayey soil.

1.2 OBJECTIVE

In this process it is aimed, to observe the shear strength behaviour, compressive strength , maximum
dry density and all other characteristics of clayey soil.
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CHAPTER-2

LITERATURE REVIEW

1. Vijay Rajoria, Suneet Kaur JAN 2014:

The stabilization of soil with bio-enzyme is a revolutionary technique which becoming popular
worldwide. Recently there are many bio-enzymes available for soil stabilization such as renolith,
Perma-Zyme, Terra-Zyme, Fujibeton etc. These enzymes have been proven to be very effective and
economical. Another advantage of the bio-enzyme is that these are environment friendly. When these
bio-enzymes are mixed with soil they alter its engineering properties. Their efficiency depends upon
the amount of dose, type of soil available and field conditions. Use of bio-enzymes results in higher
compressive strength and increased hardness of stabilized soil. Bio-enzymes provide flexibility and
durability to the pavement and also reduce the formation of crack.

2. Puneet Agarwal, Suneet Kaur MAY 2014:

Bio-enzyme, Terrazyme, has been used in the present work to study its effect on the Unconfined
Compressive strength of the Black Cotton soil. It has been found that Terrazyme treated Black
Cotton soil shows significant increase in Unconfined Compressive strength with longer curing
period. Stabilization of the soil using Terrazyme resulted in significant increase in the Unconfined
Compressive Strength of the Black Cotton Soil upto 200%. Duration of treatment of soil with
Terrazyme played a vital role in improvement of strength and soil treated with Terrazyme for 7 days
gives higher strength. The optimum dosage of Terrazyme for improvement of UCS of Black Cotton
soil is 1ml/per 5kg of soil.

3. Lacuoture and Gonzalez (1995)

conducted a comprehensive study of the TerraZyme soil stabilizer product and its effectiveness on
sub-base and sub-grade soils. The reactions of the soils treated with the enzyme was observed and
recorded and compared to the untreated control samples. The variation in properties was observed
over a short period only and it was found that in cohesive soils there was no major variation in
properties during the early days but the soil showed improved performance progressively.
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