3.1 Soil preparation
The soil used for validation was sourced from the toe of mountains in
the campus of Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati campus, India.
Guwahati located in the northeastern part of India, experiences
sub-tropical climate. The soil consisted of sand (13 %), silt (65 %),
and clay (22 %). The liquid limit and plastic limit of the soil were
measured as 32.0 % and 24.8 %, respectively. According to the Unified
Soil Classification System (USCS), the soil was identified as CL (sandy
lean clay). As per the standard compaction tests (ASTM D 1140), the
maximum dry density and optimum water content were found as 1.66
g/cm3 and 18.8 %, respectively. Table 1 summarized
the basic properties of the soil.