A geotechnical classification system for coal ashes

Abstract

Most of the existing soil classification systems make use of the plasticity chart for classifying fine-grained soils and some coarse-grained soils as well. They cannot classify those granular materials that are non-plastic through appropriate group symbols indicative of their non-plastic nature without any ambiguity. Coal ashes, consisting of fly ash (known as pulverised fuel ash in the UK), bottom ash and pond ash, are produced in large quantities and are occasionally used in geotechnical applications. As they are non-plastic materials, the existing classification systems fail to classify them appropriately. This paper discusses this issue in detail. A classification system for coal ashes that are essentially non-plastic is formulated and proposed in this paper. It is shown through illustrative examples that the coal ashes can be classified easily and without any ambiguity using the proposed system.