Black Cotton Soil Stabilization by Using Fly Ash - Kota Stone Slurry Mix

Abstract

Abstract: The usage of waste material for stabilizing black cotton soil has been a sustainable interest. Kota stone slurry is a waste from kota stone and fly ash is a waste from industries containing high amount of sodium and magnesium, was used as a soil stabilizer for blac cotton soil improvement in this study. This research investigated the effects of sizes and percentages of kota stone slurry mix and fly ash on the physical and strength properties, which included particle size distribution, Atterberg limits, compaction, and unconfined compressive strength (UCS) of blac cotton soil. Micro structural characterization, including the scanning electron microscopic, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction was conducted on both untreated and treated black cotton soil samples to examine the mechanism of strength development. The addition of kota stone slurry and fly ash reduced the water holding capacity, which then caused the reduction in soil plasticity (from 18 to 11%) and optimum water content (from 20 to 16%) along with the increase in peak dry density (from 1.66 to 1.74 Mg/m3). The strength of black cotton soil may increased from 50 to almost 220 kPa. The optimum kota stone slurry and fly ash contents, providing the highest UCS, were at 20 and 30% for 0.063 mm kota stone slurry and fly ash and 0.15 mm kota stone slurry and fly ash, respectively. The UCS improvement of treated marine clay is attributed to the formation of cementation compounds, mainly aluminum magnesium silicate hydrate (A–M–S–H). The outcome of this research will allow the use of RBT as a low-carbon soil stabilizer across civil engineering applications. Keywords: Stablization, Fly ash, kota stone slurry, Atterberg limits, Compaction, and unconfined compressive strength