ENGINEERING PROPERTIES OF RAMGANGA RIVER SEDIMENTS

Abstract

Development of infrastructure needs enormous natural Earth materials in the form of coarse and fine river aggregate materials (Ilangovana et al., 2008; Ansari at al., 2012). In India, flood plains of the Himalayan Rivers serve as an important source of river sand, leading to extensive sand mining. Ramganga River, the first major tributary of the Ganga River is one such river. In this study, 28 samples of river sediments across the stretch of the river were collected over two seasons - pre-monsoon and monsoon. The engineering properties of these sediments were studied with respect to the specifications of BIS (Bureau of Indian Standards) and ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials) to understand the suitability of their use as fine aggregates in construction. Tests to determine the particle size distribution, specific gravity and water absorption were carried out to judge the physical properties of the sediments. Similarly, the tests such as, the determination of soundness and organic impurities were performed to determine the chemical quality of the sediments. An attempt has also been made in this study to correlate the variability of these properties with respect to the location and time of collection to the Ramganga River Dam at Kalagarh, the contribution of major tributaries and the effect of monsoon. A pattern emerges from the variation of the physical properties that is explicable by these factors, whereas in general, the variation of the chemical properties does not follow a regular pattern.