Black Cotton Soil

BLACK COTTON SOIL:

The black cotton soil is a type of expansive soil with high plasticity and can retain
moisture throughout the dry season thats why they are valuable for growing crops. The name
Back Cotton as an agricultural origin It exhibits low bearing capacity due to pressure of
montmorillonite in its mineralogical content and these properties makes it unfit for
construction of embankments and other engineering structures. The swelling soils have their
origin in subaqueous decomposition of basalt rocks or weathering In-Situ. Black soils are
highly argillaceous and are relatively rich in Coco3

Black cotton soils are expansive clay

with potential for shrinkage or swelling under
the moisture change. The se soils are formed
under conditions of poor drainage from basic
rocks are lime stone under alternating wet or
dry climate conditions. They usually exhibit
high shrink-swell characteristics with surface
cracks, opening during the dry seasons which
are more than 50 mm or more wide and several
mm deep. These cracks close during the wet season and uneven soil surface is produced by
irregular swelling & heaving. Such soil is troublesome

CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF BLACK COTTON SOILS:

Black Cotton Soils are made of varying proportions of day minerals like
montmorillonite, illite and Kaolinite, Chemicals, like Iron oxide and Calcium Carbonate (in
the forms of Kankar Nodules) and organic matter like humus. Montmorllionite is a
Predominant mineral of black cotton soils. The swelling and shrinkage behaviour of black
cotton soils originate mainly from this mineral. Clay minerals are hydra silicates of
aluminium and magnesium. They are made of sheets of silica and alumina stacked one above
the other forming sheet like structure with expanding lattice. The structure of some
aluminium is by magnesium ions and the mineral becomes chemically active. The mineral
has high activity, and has the Base Exchange capacity of more than 80ml/100g compared the
VC charges on the clay minerals. They attract water molecules (dipoles) and various types of
hydrated cations to the surface causing the soil to increase the volume.

Black cotton soils are found to have the following chemical properties.
PH Value = 8.7-9.5
Organic Contest = 0.4 to 2.4 %
Caco3 = 5-15%
Sio2 = 50-55%
Sio2 / Al203 = 3.5 %
Montmorillonite minerals = 30-50 %

M.Shahzad Tabassum Roll No. 26 1

 Black Cotton Soil

PROPERTIES OF BLACK COTTON SOIL:

The black cotton soil is mainly originated from weathering of igneous rocks and
basaltic rocks. The black colour of these soils is due to titanium oxide. The main properties of
black cotton soil are given below.

High percentage of montmorillonite renders high degree of expansiveness. These

property results cracks in soil without any warning. These cracks may sometimes extent
to severe limit like wide and 12 deep. So building to be founded on this soil may
suffer severe damage with the change of atmospheric conditions.
The property of volumetric changes with the change of atmospheric conditions makes
black cotton soil dangerous to be founded buildings. It swells excessively when wet and
shrinks excessively when dry resulting terrible cracks in soil without any warning. It has
a great affinity to water. This tendency of soil is on account of the presence of fine clay
particles. Cracks are formed due to movement of the ground on account of alternate
swelling and shrinkage. The cracks thus formed are sometimes 15 to 20 cm wide and 2.5
to 4 m deep.
In rainy season, these soils become very soft by filling up of water in the cracks and
fissures. These soft soils reduce the bearing capacity of the soils.
In saturated conditions, these soils have high consolidation settlements.
When loads are applied on these soils in wet conditions, these soils get Shrinkage.
In black cotton soils on dry sieve analysis the material retained on 75 micron sieve does
not exceeds 20%.
The range of the liquid limits is 50 100%.
In Black cotton soils the plastic limit ranges from 20-65%.
Shrinkage limit ranges from 9-14% for black cotton soils.
As plasticity index and linear shrinkage decreased with the increase of lime content, a
mixture of both lime and cement is necessary for adequate stabilization of road bases for
heavy wheel loads on the black cotton soils

DAMAGES DUE TO BLACK COTTON SOIL:

When the structure is built on the black cotton soil in the dry seasons, there may be no
damage in the structure in that season. When the rainy seasons is starts due to the
swelling property the soil get expands and the strength in the foundation structure
decreases, which causes uneven settlement leads to crack in the walls.
Due to uneven settlement the beam gets deflected which affects the plastering to the
walls.
Small fissure cracks are seen on the floors and on the walls.
Due to high degree of expansive soils, the buildings may fail which will be very
dangerous.

Location of black cotton soil in Pakistan:

M.Shahzad Tabassum Roll No. 26 2

 Black Cotton Soil

In Pakistan black cotton soil is found in the following areas of Pakistan

1. Sialkot 4. Multan Division

2. Jhang 5. Bahawalpur
3. Sakhar 6. Hyderabad

7. Lodhran 8. Sialkot

M.Shahzad Tabassum Roll No. 26 3

TIPS FOR FOUNDATION ENGINEERS TO FOUND ON BLACK COTTON SOIL

As we know the Atmospheric conditions induce volumetric changes in black cotton soil
due to presence of fine clay particles in it. These ground movement on account of swelling
and shrinkage causes severe cracking and foundations rested on such soil fall in great danger.
Some tips found useful are listed below:

i. To provide reinforced concrete ties or bands all around the main walls of the building.
The R.C.C ties or bands which may be 10 cm to 15 cm deep should be placed at plinth
level, lintel level and eaves level. In case of flat roof, R.C.C slab itself acts as a tie and
as such no extra band needed to be provide near the roof in such cases.
ii. If the depth of the black cotton soil at a given site is only 1 to 1.5 m, the entire black
cotton soil above the hard bed may be completely removed and the foundation may be
laid on the hard bed below
iii. Limit the load on the soil to 5.5 tonnes/ sq. m. if water is liable to find an access to the
foundations, the limit of loading should be restricted to 4900 Kg/sq. m.
iv. Take the foundation to such depths where the cracks cease to extend. The minimum
depth of foundation should be at least 1.5 m.
v. The swelling of soil in direct contact with the foundation material causes maximum
damage. Hence it is necessary to prevent the direct contact of black cotton soil with
masonry work below ground level. These can be achieved by making wider trenches
for foundation and filling spaces on the either side of the foundation masonry with
sand.

vi. The bed of foundation trench should be made firm or hard by ramming it well. On the
rammed bed a 30 cm layer of good hard moorum should be spread in layers of 15 cm,
each layer being well watered and rammed before laying the next layer. On this layer
either stone or sand bed should be provided to the desire height to place the
foundation concrete bed block upon it
vii. In case of ordinary buildings, the foundation should be taken at least 30 cm deeper
than the depth where the cracks stop
viii. In important structures raft foundation should be provided so as to float the building
on the bed below the depth, quite independent of the surrounding soil.
ix. For less important structures like compound walls etc., the foundation should
preferably be taken at least 15 cm below the depth at which cracks in soil cease to
occur.
x. Construction in black cotton soil should be undertaken during dry season. The
masonry for the walls should start at least 15 cm below the general ground level.
xi. The width of trench for main walls or load bearing walls of a building should be dug
40 cm wider than the width of foundation. This is necessary to ensure provision of at
least 20 cm wide layer of coarse sand on either side of foundation masonry thereby
separating the sub-structure from having direct contact with black cotton soil. In case
of compound wall, width of sand layer on either side of foundation masonry could be
15 cm.