Compaction and strength behavior of Kaolin clay stabilized with Pond ash

Abstract

In India 75% electricity is produced by thermal power plants using coal. Because the majority of the nation's coal reserves are of a lower non-cooking quality, more ash will be created as a result. One of the main causes of increased ash generation is the average 35% ash content of Indian coal. Fly ash makes up a relatively minor portion of the total amount of ash produced, with pond ash and bottom ash making up the rest. Therefore, there is a need to manage this material to avoid any environmental concerns. Another issue is the presence of problematic soil, in particular, expansive clays. Their presence at any site is a challenging task for geotechnical engineer. It is because they show high signs of volume change. To tackle this issue, engineers can go with either of the two available solutions: a) replacement and b) soil modification. Keeping this in view, the present investigation focuses on the utilization of Pond ash (PA) as an admixture in Kaolin clay (KC) as a soil modification method. Hence, in this paper, strength and compaction behaviour of KC stabilized with Pond ash PA was studied. For strength characteristics, unconfined compressive strength (UCS) and split tensile strength (STS) tests were carried out. Similarly, for compaction characteristics, modified proctor compaction tests were carried out. From the test results, it was observed that the inclusion of PA in KC significantly affected its compaction and strength characteristics. The optimum Pond ash content was observed to be 30% where, OMC, MDD, UCS and STS values were 17.30%, 1.60 g/cc, 360 kN/m2 and 88.70kN/m2, respectively.