INVESTIGATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF SOILS FOUND IN EZO TOWN, ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Ezo Town is the administrative center of the newly formed and growing Ezo woreda in Gammo zone. The town has its own future development plans so that the expansion of cities, industries, commerce, will require a numerous buildings, well-planned high ways, pipelines and embankment and other constructions. Investigation and characterization of the engineering behavior of different types of soils is extremely important to civil engineers because every engineering structure such as a building, a road, a bridge, a monument, etc. will have to be rested and founded on the ground i.e. on some kind of soil deposit that does not get settled or tilted, or damaged due to failure of the foundation soil. Hence the present research is intended to investigate index and some of engineering properties of the soils found in Ezo town. Twenty (20) disturbed soil samples and twenty (20) undisturbed soil samples were collected from ten test pits at 1.5 m and 3.0m depths. Then laboratory tests are conducted in AMU Laboratory based on ASTM/BS standards. Then the soils were classified using USCS and AASHTO method then the compressibility and compaction behavior is evaluated. Specific gravity test, Particle size distribution, Atterberg limit tests and Free swell tests were conducted at oven dried at a temperature of 105°c. These tests were conducted in order to understand the behavior of the soil in the area and classification. According to USCS the soil around the study area are grouped under CH, soil group or based on AASHTO classification, they categorized under A-7-5 and A-7-6 soil groups. The liquid limit and plastic limit varies from 51.51% to 75.12 % and 27% to 29.94 % respectively. The optimum moisture content and maximum dry density varies from 18.8 to 36.5 % and 1.44 gm/cc to 1.68 gm/cc. Field density of the soil varies from 1.25 gm/cc to1.49gm/cc. The liquidity index of the soil is between 0 and 1. Generally, most soil in the study area is highly clay soil. The UCS Values of the study area ranges from 100kN/m2 to 132.6kN/m2 and Cc values ranges from 0.37- 0.58. Keywords: - Soil, Investigation, Characterization, Index Properties, Liquid Limit, Water Content, Plastic Limit