Enhancing the Engineering Properties of Indian Black Cotton Soil with Municipal Solid Waste Incineration Ash – A Review

The present study is the review of work carried out by various researchers on the improvement of engineering properties of expansive soils namely Indian Black Cotton Soil (BCS), after the addition of MSWI ash to the soil in varying proportions. The findings of study indicate that the optimum content of MSWI ash to be added to expansive soils for improvement in strength characteristics varies between 10% and 30% with best results at 25% of MSWI ash proportion. This content of MSWI ash increases the UCS of expansive black cotton soil from 28.8 kPa to 53.4 kPa and an increase in CBR value from 3.38% to 9.38%. The review suggests the use of MSWI ash in India keeping in view the enormous increase in volumes of municipal solid waste (MSW) due to fast urbanization in the country. The extensive use of such green technology will go a long way in reducing requirement of civil construction materials thereby lowering greenhouse emissions. Simultaneously, cost effectiveness in improvement of weak soils to be used in Highway subgrade civil engineering applications using MSWI ash will result is sustainable construction practices.