Influence of fly ash on strength behavior of typical soils

Abstract

Construction of any infrastructure over a weak or a soft soil is highly typical on the geo-technical grounds as the soil undergoes differential settlements, poor shear strength and high compressibility. Normally, the type of foundations varies depending upon the availability of soil strata as well as cost involvement. Sometimes, it is essential to have a high rise building over a weak soil, in such conditions, improvement of load bearing capacity of soil is very much essential. In these aspects, improvement of load bearing capacity of soil has been improved by adopting various techniques like soil stabilization, adoption of reinforcement etc. Generally, admixing technique in soil has an effective ground improvement because of its easy adaptability. Therefore, the present investigation describes the behavioral aspect of soils mixed with fly ash to improve the load bearing capacity of the soil. Three different types of soil have been considered using different percentage of fly ash ranging from 9 to 46% by weight of soil. The main objectives of the present investigation is to assess the usefulness of fly ash as a soil admixture, and focused to improve the engineering properties of soil to make it capable of taking more load from the foundation structures. This study also benefits the effective use of fly ash and thus cost effective method for improving the soil properties. The present study covers the characterization of soil, fly ash, compaction behavior, settlement, California bearing ratio, shear strength parameters ( C and φ) and swelling characteristics, etc.