M. Doustmohammadi; A. Jafari; O. Asghari
Abstract
Water inflow is one of the most important challenges in the underground excavations. In addition to inducing working conditions and environmental problems, it decreases the stability and quality of the surrounding rocks. The direct method of measuring rock mass hydraulic conductivity consists of drilling ...
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Water inflow is one of the most important challenges in the underground excavations. In addition to inducing working conditions and environmental problems, it decreases the stability and quality of the surrounding rocks. The direct method of measuring rock mass hydraulic conductivity consists of drilling the boreholes and observing the rate of fluid lost in the boreholes. Applying this method is still problematic due to the depth of underground spaces, and also the groundwater level covering them. Therefore, many researchers have tried to predict the water inflow indirectly. This paper attempts to predict the groundwater conditions in the Beheshtabad tunnel (in Iran) using the fuzzy inference system based on the datasets acquired from the preliminary exploration studies. 250 datasets for the Beheshtabad tunnel were used out of which, 200 datasets were used to develop the model and 50 were used to validate the results obtained. 90% accuracy was obtained through comparing the fuzzy estimation and actual groundwater conditions. The proposed model can be used with much less degree of complexity for prediction of the groundwater conditions as well as decreasing the overall costs of the exploration measurements, and due to these characteristics, it is applicable for most users.
R. Vahedi; B. Tokhmechi; M. Koneshloo
Abstract
We use a multi-resolution analysis based on a wavelet transform to upscale a 3D fractured reservoir. This paper describes a 3D, single-phase, and black-oil geological model (GM) that is used to simulate naturally-fractured reservoirs. The absolute permeability and porosity of GM is upscaled by all the ...
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We use a multi-resolution analysis based on a wavelet transform to upscale a 3D fractured reservoir. This paper describes a 3D, single-phase, and black-oil geological model (GM) that is used to simulate naturally-fractured reservoirs. The absolute permeability and porosity of GM is upscaled by all the possible combinations of Haar, Bior1.3, and Db4 wavelets in three levels of coarsening. The applied upscaling method creates a non-uniform computational grid, which preserves its resolved structure in the near-well zones as well as in the high-permeability sectors but the data are scaled up in the other regions. To demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of the method, the values for the oil production rate, mean reservoir pressure, water cut, and total amount of water production are studied, and their mean error is estimated for the upscaled models. Finally, the optimized model is selected based on the computation time and accuracy value.
A. Siamaki; H. Bakhshandeh Amnieh
Abstract
A considerable amount of energy is released in the form of shock wave from explosive charge detonation. Shock wave energy is responsible for the creation of crushing and fracture zone around the blast hole. The rest of the shock wave energy is transferred to rock mass as ground vibration. Ground vibration ...
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A considerable amount of energy is released in the form of shock wave from explosive charge detonation. Shock wave energy is responsible for the creation of crushing and fracture zone around the blast hole. The rest of the shock wave energy is transferred to rock mass as ground vibration. Ground vibration is conveyed to the adjacent structures by body and surface waves. Geological structures like faults, fractures, and fillings play important roles in the wave attenuation. Studying the mechanism of ground wave propagation from blasts gives a better understanding about the stress wave transmission and its effect on the near structures. In this research work, the stress wave transmissions from discontinuities and fillings were evaluated using a field measurement and a Universal Distinct Element Code (UDEC). A single-hole blast was conducted in the Kangir dam, and the resulting vibrations were measured in many points before and after the faults. Numerical simulation shows the effects of geo-mechanical properties of fillings on the reflection and refraction rate of the stress wave. There are more energy reflections in the rock boundaries and soil fillings, and more energy is absorbed by soil fillings compared with rock fillings. Furthermore, there is a close correlation between the ground vibration records for the Kangir dam and the numerical results. The maximum relative error between the actual records and the simulated ones was found to be 18.5%, which shows the UDEC ability for the prediction of blast vibrations.
M. Mohammady Oskouei; S. Babakan
Abstract
This work aims to extract the mineralogical constituents of the Lahroud Hyperion scene situated in the NW of Iran. Like the other push-broom sensors, Hyperion images suffer from spectral distortions, namely the smile effect. The corresponding spectral curvature is defined as an across-track wavelength ...
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This work aims to extract the mineralogical constituents of the Lahroud Hyperion scene situated in the NW of Iran. Like the other push-broom sensors, Hyperion images suffer from spectral distortions, namely the smile effect. The corresponding spectral curvature is defined as an across-track wavelength shift from the nominal central wavelength, and alters the pixel spectra. The common “column mean adjusted in MNF space” method was employed in this work to improve the processing accuracy by minimizing the smile effect before carrying out the atmospheric and topographical corrections. The mineral distributions were mapped by applying the standardized hyperspectral processing methodology developed by analytical imaging and geophysics (AIG). The spectral unmixing of the data resulted in the identification of five indicative minerals including natrolite, opal, analcime, kaolinite, and albite; and their spectra were employed for the generation of their distribution maps. Comparison of the results of the data processing with and without smile correction indicated a better classification performance after the smile correction. Quantitative validation of the final mineralogical map was performed using the 100 k geological map and reports of the region. Therefore, the coverage of the extracted minerals were investigated regarding the location of the lithological units in ArcGIS that implies a high coincidence. The mineral distributions in the final map show a high consistency with the geological map of the studied area, and thus it could be utilized successfully to reveal the mineralization trend in the region.
M. Nikkhah; Seyed S. Mousavi; Sh. Zare; O. Khademhosseini
Abstract
The joints between segmental rings can withstand a certain amount of bending moment as well as axial and shear forces. Generally, in the structural analysis of tunnel segmental lining, the joints can be modeled as elastic hinges or rotational springs, and their rigidity should be demonstrated in terms ...
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The joints between segmental rings can withstand a certain amount of bending moment as well as axial and shear forces. Generally, in the structural analysis of tunnel segmental lining, the joints can be modeled as elastic hinges or rotational springs, and their rigidity should be demonstrated in terms of the rigidity of the joints or their rotational stiffness. Therefore, the bending moment acting on the tunnel lining is reduced. Hence, the tunnel designers are free to choose a lining with a lower cost. In this research work, especially considering the joints, the structural analysis of the segmental lining with variation in the flexural stiffness of the joints ( ), soil resistance coefficient ( ), number of segmental lining joints, and joint arrangement of segmental lining were carried out by the Force-Method equations. The imposed bending moment and axial forces were computed based on the Beam-Spring method, which is widely used to analyze the internal forces of segmental lining, and compared them with the results of the Force-Method equations. Then the effects of joint arrangement patterns and joint rotational spring stiffness on the results of the Beam-Spring analysis were evaluated. Finally, the optimum characteristics of the reinforced concrete segmental lining design were evaluated using the interaction diagram of bending moments and axial forces. The results obtained showed that the presented pattern for the segmental lining at the Chamshir tunnel was imposed against the external pressures on the segmental lining with an acceptable safety factor.
H. Molayemat; F. Mohammad Torab
Abstract
Coalbed methane (CBM) plays an important role in coal mining safety and natural gas production. In this work, The CBM potential of B2 seam in Parvadeh IV coal deposit, in central Iran, was evaluated using a combination of local regression and geostatistical methods. As there were 30 sparse methane sampling ...
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Coalbed methane (CBM) plays an important role in coal mining safety and natural gas production. In this work, The CBM potential of B2 seam in Parvadeh IV coal deposit, in central Iran, was evaluated using a combination of local regression and geostatistical methods. As there were 30 sparse methane sampling points in the Parvadeh IV coal deposit, no valid variogram was achieved for the methane content. A multivariate adaptive regression splines (MARS) model was used to reproduce the methane content data based on seam depth, thickness, and ash content. The MARS model results were used in ordinary kriging to estimate the methane content in all mine blocks. A combination of MARS modeling and ordinary kriging in CBM studies is introduced, for the first time, in this paper. The results obtained show that high methane zones are located in the central and south western parts of the deposit. The in situ CBM potential varies from 6.0 to 16.1 m3/t, and it was estimated to be 1.39 billion m3 at the average depth of 267 m in an area of 86.55 km2. Although this volume is remarkable, little is known as how much of this resource is actually producible. Consequently, high methane-bearing zones are highly recommended for further studies as a source of natural gas for extraction and reducing the hazards and explosion risks of underground coal mining.
A. Majdi; M. Yazdani
Abstract
The hydraulic jacking refers to the process of crack growth of the pre-existing joints in the rock mass under grout pressure above the minimum in-situ stress. Thus it is essential to understand the resistance behavior of the joints and maximum grout pressure. This paper describes a novel method for determining ...
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The hydraulic jacking refers to the process of crack growth of the pre-existing joints in the rock mass under grout pressure above the minimum in-situ stress. Thus it is essential to understand the resistance behavior of the joints and maximum grout pressure. This paper describes a novel method for determining the hydraulic jacking occurrence in anisotropic rock mass based on the principle of fracture mechanics. This method is established on three stage developments: developing an equation in order to calculate the equivalent stress intensity factor at the joint tip, determining the fracture toughness by employing the Brazilian disc test with a loading rate of 0.1 MPa/s on the rock cored samples, and assessing the stability of joints using the maximum tangential stress criterion. By comparing the joint stress intensity factor and fracture toughness in the direction of rock anisotropy, the joint stability is evaluated. Then the maximum allowable grout pressure is analytically formulated as a function of fracture toughness in order to avoid the unwanted deformations in the joints (i.e. jacking) during grouting. In order to validate the proposed method, the data obtained from the boreholes used to construct water curtain at the Sanandaj Azad Dam in phyllite rocks are analyzed. Finally, it is concluded that the growth and expansion of the joints due to the instability under grout pressure leads to an increased cement take and the occurrence of hydraulic jacking. In addition, the proposed equation for computing maximum allowable grout pressure provides an acceptable agreement with the existing empirical rules and the results of the field data.
M.H. Dehghani Firoozabadi; M. Fatehi Marji; A. Abdollahipour; A.R. Yarahamdi Bafghi; Y. Mirzaeian
Abstract
In this work, an effective methodology is introduced for simulation of the crack propagation in linear poroelastic media. The presence of pores and saturated cracks that can be accompanied by fluid flow makes the use of poroelastic media inevitable. In this work, involvement of the time parameter in ...
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In this work, an effective methodology is introduced for simulation of the crack propagation in linear poroelastic media. The presence of pores and saturated cracks that can be accompanied by fluid flow makes the use of poroelastic media inevitable. In this work, involvement of the time parameter in crack propagation is of particular importance. The order of doing the work is such that first, derives the fundamental solutions of a poroelastic higher order displacement discontinuity method (PHODDM). Then will be provided a numerical formulation and implementation for PHODDM in a code named linear element poroelastic DDM (LEP-DDM). Analytical solutions use different times to check the correctness and validity of the proposed solution and the newly developed code. The numerical results show a good agreement and coordination with the analytical results in time zero and 5000 seconds . The code is able to pursue crack-propagation in time and space. This topic is introduced and shown in an example.
Myong Nam Sin; Un Chol Han; Sung Il Jon; Hyon Hyok Ri
Abstract
Anthracite coal seam of Democratic People’s Republic of Korea was broken into particles to be soft due to geological tectonic actions through several stages in the Mesozoic era. Because the folds and faults have excessively developed and the shape of coal seam is very complicated, it is impossible ...
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Anthracite coal seam of Democratic People’s Republic of Korea was broken into particles to be soft due to geological tectonic actions through several stages in the Mesozoic era. Because the folds and faults have excessively developed and the shape of coal seam is very complicated, it is impossible to extract the anthracite coal by longwall mining system, and coal has been mainly mined by entry caving mining system. The aim of this work is to assess effectiveness of new combination of flying squirrel search algorithm (SSA) and artificial neural-network (ANN) for back-analysis of time-depending mechanical parameters of anthracite coal based on timber loads and displacements measured in the coal face entry. The case study deals with a coal face entry in Sinchang Coal Mine located in the Unsan County, South Pyongan Province, DPR Korea. To verify the good performance of new combination of the SSA and ANN, the comparison studies between proposed back-analysis method and other methods with the same purpose, are conducted using data measured in coal face entry. The mean absolute error (MAE) of weighted error norm of ANN-SSA is relatively smaller in comparison with other methods, which is 2.49. The new back-analysis is the good method to determine the suitable time-dependent mechanical parameters of anthracite coal surrounding the entry in very soft coal seam.
Enayatallah Emami Meybodi; fatemeh taajobian
Abstract
Due to the challenge of finding identical rock samples with varying grain sizes, investigating the impact of texture on rock material has been given less attention. However, macroscopic properties such as compressive strength, tensile strength, and modulus of elasticity can indicate microscopic properties ...
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Due to the challenge of finding identical rock samples with varying grain sizes, investigating the impact of texture on rock material has been given less attention. However, macroscopic properties such as compressive strength, tensile strength, and modulus of elasticity can indicate microscopic properties like intergranular resistance properties influence rock fracture toughness. In this work, both the experimental and numerical methods are used to examine the effect of grain size on the mechanical properties of sandstone. Uniaxial compressive strength and indirect tensile tests are conducted on sandstone samples with varying grain sizes, and the particle flow code software is used to model the impact of grain dimensions on intergranular properties. Flat joint model is applied for numerical modeling in the particle flow code© software. The aim of this work is to validate the numerical model by peak strength failure and stress-strain curves to determine the effect of grain size on the mechanical behavior. The results show that increasing grain size significantly decrease compressive strength, tensile strength, and modulus of elasticity. The impact of the change in grain size is more significant on compressive strength than on the other two properties. The correlation coefficient for tensile strength and grain size is R2 = 0.57, while for modulus of elasticity and grain size, it is R2 = 0.79. The PFC software helps calibrate intergranular properties, and investigate the effect of changing grain size on these properties. Overall, this study offers valuable insights into the relationship between the grain size and the mechanical properties of sandstone, which can be useful in various engineering applications, especially in petroleum geo-mechanics.
IMRAN KHAN; Ravi Kumar Sharma
Abstract
An experimental study is carried out to improve the bearing capacity of soils by using geotextile. In the present study geotextile (tire reinforcement) is used as geotextile, whereas sand is used as a soil medium. This research work presents the results of laboratory load tests on model square footings ...
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An experimental study is carried out to improve the bearing capacity of soils by using geotextile. In the present study geotextile (tire reinforcement) is used as geotextile, whereas sand is used as a soil medium. This research work presents the results of laboratory load tests on model square footings supported on reinforced sand beds. A total of twenty-seven load tests are conducted to evaluate the effects of single layer reinforcement placed below square model footings. The parameters of the testing program of the research work are the depth of reinforcement, the plan area of reinforcement, and the number of reinforcements. From the experimental data, it is indicated that there is an optimum reinforcement depth at which the bearing capacity is the highest. Also, the optimum size of reinforcement is found to be 1.5 B×1.5 B irrespective of the type of reinforcing materials used. The bearing capacity of reinforced sand is also found to increase with the number of reinforcement layer and reinforcement size when the reinforcement is placed within a certain effective zone with high relative density. The optimum placement position of geotextile is found to be 0.5B to 0.75B from the base of the footing .The tests are done at two different relative densities, i.e., 40% and 60%. The bulk unit weight of sandy soil is 14.81 KN/m³. Maximum gain in load carrying capacity is obtained when depth of reinforcement/width of footing (Dr/B) is 0.5 at relative density of 40% and 0.75 at a relative density of 60%.In addition, the data indicate that increasing reinforcement beyond a certain value would not bring about further increase in the bearing capacity of the soil.
Lokeshwar Singh Dilta; Ravi Kumar Sharma
Abstract
This study highlights the results from a series of analytical model experiments that investigate the behaviour of a strip footing supported by hollow steel piles installed to stabilize a clay slope. The effects of changing the pile diameter, pile length, spacing between piles, slope angle, the position ...
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This study highlights the results from a series of analytical model experiments that investigate the behaviour of a strip footing supported by hollow steel piles installed to stabilize a clay slope. The effects of changing the pile diameter, pile length, spacing between piles, slope angle, the position of the pile row from the top of slope, and the footing placement are all examined. After determining the load-carrying capacity of unstabilized slopes, it is compared with the load-carrying capacity of stabilized slopes. The results are then analysed to see how each parameter affects the load carrying capacity of strip footing. The results of unstabilized cases reveal that the load carrying capacity of a footing decreases as the slope angle increases and increases when the footing is positioned away from the slope. In addition, the findings imply that by reinforcing clay slope with a sequence of hollow steel piles significantly enhances the load carrying capacity of strip footing. As the distance between piles is decreased and their length is increased, the bearing capacity of the footing increases, and this improvement is enhanced by increasing the diameter of the piles. When the row of pile is positioned away from the top of the slope, the footing’s load carrying capacity decreases. Also positioning the footing a quite distance apart from the crest slope shows reduction in bearing capacity ratio.
Smily Vishwakarma; Dr Dharmendra; Deven Singh
Abstract
The present study is based on data collection from some of the WWTPs (wastewater treatment plants) of the Himachal Pradesh region, and to investigate the range of physico-chemical characteristics of conventional WWTPs, which receive wastewater from different zones in different cities in Himachal Pradesh. ...
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The present study is based on data collection from some of the WWTPs (wastewater treatment plants) of the Himachal Pradesh region, and to investigate the range of physico-chemical characteristics of conventional WWTPs, which receive wastewater from different zones in different cities in Himachal Pradesh. Five parameters are measured and analyzed in this research work. They are pH, suspended solids (mg/L), biological oxygen demand (mg/L), chemical oxygen demand (mg/L), and oil and grease (mg/L). The parameters are compared seasonally to help improve the performance, and operational conditions of WWTPs are with the standard parameters range according to APHA (American Public Health Association), standard examination methods of water, and wastewater seasonal in parameters. Seasonal variations in physico-chemical properties are noticeable. The study analyzes the physico-chemical parameters of wastewater from various Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) across six districts in Himachal Pradesh, India, revealing variations in water quality across different seasons and locations. The study highlights the need for proper treatment and management of wastewater to prevent environmental pollution and protect public health. The findings could be useful for the policy-makers and authorities responsible for wastewater management in the region.
Ankit Verma; Akhilesh Nautiyal
Abstract
Roads are said to be the backbone of the development of any nation. In the developing nations like India, it is the primary mode of transportation, which makes its significance much higher. Highway geometric alignment is an important aspect for maintaining road safety and the effective movement of traffic ...
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Roads are said to be the backbone of the development of any nation. In the developing nations like India, it is the primary mode of transportation, which makes its significance much higher. Highway geometric alignment is an important aspect for maintaining road safety and the effective movement of traffic on any road. Highway geometry features are meant to be picked, sized, and placed in order to achieve various design goals including sight distance, car stability, driver convenience, drainage, economic growth, and aesthetic qualities. Due to the rapid increase in the growth of traffic in the past few years, it has become important to ensure safe design alignment to serve the future needs efficiently and economically. A case study of NH-05 is used in the present work to design the existing highway to improve its geometric features by considering future forecasted traffic and covering all safety measures given by the Indian Road Congress (IRC) recommendations. The OpenRoads software was used as a designing tool, and all designs were made keeping the design speed at 50 kmph. The roadway width has been decided to be 13.0 m, with the carriageway width set at 7.5 m and the width of the shoulder at 2.4 m. The cross-slope or camber has been determined to be 2.4% for bituminous surfaces and 3.6% for earthen surfaces, with a maximum super-elevation of 7%. Thus the results obtained can be used to solve the traffic congestion problems, particularly due to the high traffic volume, and enhance road safety.
Zohreh Nabavi; Mohammad Mirzehi; Hesam Dehghani; Pedram Ashtari
Abstract
Back-break is one of the adverse effects of blasting, which results in unstable mine walls, high duration, falling machinery, and inappropriate fragmentation. Thus, the economic benefits of the mine are reduced, and safety is severely affected. Back-break can be influenced by various parameters such ...
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Back-break is one of the adverse effects of blasting, which results in unstable mine walls, high duration, falling machinery, and inappropriate fragmentation. Thus, the economic benefits of the mine are reduced, and safety is severely affected. Back-break can be influenced by various parameters such as rock mass properties, blast geometry, and explosive properties. Therefore, during the blasting process, back-break must be accurately predicted, and other production activities must be done to prevent and reduce its adverse effects. In this regard, a hybrid model of extreme gradient boosting (XGB) is proposed for predicting back-break using gray wolf optimization (GWO) and particle swarm optimization (PSO). Additionally, validation of the hybrid model is conducted using XGBoost, gene expression programming (GEP), random forest (RF), linear multiple regression (LMR), and non-linear multiple regression (NLMR) methods. For this purpose, the data obtained from 90 blasting operations in the Chadormalu iron ore mine are collected by considering the parameters of the blast pattern design. According to the results obtained, the performance and accuracy level of hybrid models including GWO-XGB (R2 = 99, RMSE = 0.01, MAE = 0.001, VAF = 0.99, a-20 = 0.98), and PSO-XGB (99, 0.01, 0.001, 0.99, 0.98) are better than the XGBoost (97, 0.185, 0.132, 0.98, 95), GEP (96, 0.233, 0.186, 0.967, 0.935), RF (97, 0.210, 0.156, 0.97, 0.94), LMR (96, 0.235, 0.181, 0.964, 0.92), and NLMR (96, 0.229, 0.177, 0.968, 0.93) models. Notably, the GWO-XGB hybrid model has superior overall performance as compared to the PSO-XGB model. Based on the sensitivity analysis results, hole depth and stemming are the essential effective parameters for back-break.
Mohammadhossein Dehghani Firoozabadi; Mohammad Fatehi Marji; Abolfazl Abdollahipour; Alireza Yarahamdi Bafghi; Yousef Mirzaeian
Abstract
The presence of pores and cracks in porous and fractured rocks is mostly accompanied by fluid flow. Poroelasticity can be used for the accurate modeling of many rock structures in the petroleum industry. The approach of the stress to the value of the fracture stress and the effect of pore pressure on ...
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The presence of pores and cracks in porous and fractured rocks is mostly accompanied by fluid flow. Poroelasticity can be used for the accurate modeling of many rock structures in the petroleum industry. The approach of the stress to the value of the fracture stress and the effect of pore pressure on the deformation of rock are among the effects of fluid on the mechanical behavior of the medium. Due to the deformation-diffusion property of porous media, governing equations, strain-displacement, and stress-strain relationships can be changed to each other. In this study, constitutive equations and relationships necessary to investigate the behavior and reaction of rock in a porous environment are stated. Independent and time-dependent differential equations for an impulse and point fluid source are used to obtain the fundamental solutions. Influence functions are obtained by using the shape functions in the formulation of the fundamental solutions and integrating them. To check the validity and correctness of provided formulation, several examples are mentioned. In the first two examples, numerical application and analytical solution are used at different times and in undrained and drained conditions. In times 0 (undrained response of medium) and 4500 seconds (drained response of medium), there is good coordination and agreement between the numerical and analytical results. In the third example, using the numerical application, a crack propagation path in the wellbore wall is obtained, which is naturally in the direction of maximum horizontal stress.
Alireza Dolatshahi; Hamed Molladavoodi
Abstract
The structure's response to the region's prevailing loading conditions guides the engineers in estimating the resilience of the structural materials and their reinforcement. One of the main concerns in designing rock structures is paying attention to the size effect phenomenon. The size effect influences ...
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The structure's response to the region's prevailing loading conditions guides the engineers in estimating the resilience of the structural materials and their reinforcement. One of the main concerns in designing rock structures is paying attention to the size effect phenomenon. The size effect influences the nominal strength, brittleness, load capacity, stress intensity factor, the characteristics of the fracture process zone at the crack tip, and the way and path of crack propagation. Therefore, studying the size effect law will make a guideline for correct decision-making, design, and implementation of efficient support systems. As a comprehensive review, this work investigates specimen size effect on the rock's mechanical and fracture properties. With a comprehensive look at this issue, it explains the essential points that help the engineers design rock structures. During the investigations carried out in this work, it is shown that the specimen size affects the fracture and mechanical properties of the rock. The severity of this phenomenon depends on various factors such as the brittleness index, the shape of the notch or crack length, and the size of the particles that create the rock. In concrete, it depends on the additive boosting materials in the concrete.
Avinash Chandan; ABHISHEK SHARMA
Abstract
Due to disposal concerns, an enormous quantity of personal protective equipment (PPE) waste from the COVID-19 pandemic constituted a severe health and environmental risk. During the pandemic, the usage of protective suits increased dramatically raising concerns about how to dispose of them to safeguard ...
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Due to disposal concerns, an enormous quantity of personal protective equipment (PPE) waste from the COVID-19 pandemic constituted a severe health and environmental risk. During the pandemic, the usage of protective suits increased dramatically raising concerns about how to dispose of them to safeguard the environment. This research work uses shredded face masks (SFM) to stabilise clayey soil for sub-grade usage. Shredded face masks are added to clayey soil to investigate consistency limits, compaction characteristics, unconfined compressive strength (UCS), and California bearing ratio (CBR). Laboratory experiments demonstrate that clayey soil geo-technical characteristics such differential free swell, consistency limits, UCS, and CBR values have improved. Based on the CBR results, the IITPAVE software is used to design flexible pavement thickness, which was reduced for various commercial vehicles per day for all combinations. Cost analysis is also done to determine the total cost for a 1000-meter stretch. The results show that addition of SFM to clayey soils strengthen the geo-technical properties of clayey soil as the UCS values increase for all curing periods of 3, 7, and 28 days with a maximum improvement of 64% for 28 days curing for 1% SFM content. Also, the CBR value is found to be increased from 1.96% to 6.72%.
