Abstract
This paper evaluates the suitability of sugarcane bagasse ash (SCBA) and waste marble dust (WMD) on the geotechnical properties of Palygorskite-rich expansive clays located in northwest Pakistan. These problematic soils exhibit undesirable characteristics which greatly affect the pavements, boundary walls, slab-on-grade members, and other civil engineering infrastructures. A series of geotechnical tests were performed on soil specimens using prescribed percentages of the aforementioned Ca-based stabilizer materials (CSMs). The investigation includes X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) Analysis, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) tests, and physicomechanical properties such as moisture-density relationship, Atterberg’s limits, swell pressure, and an ANN-based sensitivity analyses of overall swell pressure development. The outcomes of these experimental investigations showed that the addition of CSMs into the expansive soils increased to 4% SCBA and 10% WMD, the plasticity index reduced by 30% and 49%, the volumetric swell decreased from approximately 49% to 86% and 63%, and the swelling pressure reduction was from 189 kPa to 120 kPa and 160 kPa (about 15% and 36%), respectively. It is interesting to note that replacement with specified CSM accelerated the strength of soil at extended curing periods and the optimum improvement in the strength behavior of the soil was also recorded. Moreover, with addition of the respective CSMs, the compactability and strength characteristics were ameliorated, while plasticity was significantly lowered. Given the amount of SCBA and WMD produced annually, their utilization for the stabilization of problematic soils, even in relatively low concentrations, could potentially have a substantial impact on the sustainable reuse of these waste materials.
Highlights
Academic Editor: Zhuang-Zhuang Liu is paper evaluates the suitability of sugarcane bagasse ash (SCBA) and waste marble dust (WMD) on the geotechnical properties of Palygorskite-rich expansive clays located in northwest Pakistan. ese problematic soils exhibit undesirable characteristics which greatly affect the pavements, boundary walls, slab-on-grade members, and other civil engineering infrastructures
A series of geotechnical tests were performed on soil specimens using prescribed percentages of the aforementioned Ca-based stabilizer materials (CSMs). e investigation includes X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) Analysis, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) tests, and physicomechanical properties such as moisture-density relationship, Atterberg’s limits, swell pressure, and an Artificial Neural Network (ANN)-based sensitivity analyses of overall swell pressure development. e outcomes of these experimental investigations showed that the addition of CSMs into the expansive soils increased to 4% SCBA and 10% WMD, the plasticity index reduced by 30% and 49%, the volumetric swell decreased from approximately 49% to 86% and 63%, and the swelling pressure reduction was from 189 kPa to 120 kPa and 160 kPa, respectively
WMD is found to be efficacious additive for enhancing the unconfined compressive strength of tested soils. e optimum WMD content can be observed in case of ES-10M. e addition of WMD increases the soil alkalinity alongside an increase in the specific gravity which is responsible for lower plasticity index (PI) due to aggregation of particles at microlevel. e maximum dry density (MDD) is increased due to lesser voids and this continuously increases the soil strength until ES-10M
Summary
Academic Editor: Zhuang-Zhuang Liu is paper evaluates the suitability of sugarcane bagasse ash (SCBA) and waste marble dust (WMD) on the geotechnical properties of Palygorskite-rich expansive clays located in northwest Pakistan. ese problematic soils exhibit undesirable characteristics which greatly affect the pavements, boundary walls, slab-on-grade members, and other civil engineering infrastructures. E incorporation of waste products and fibers blended with other chemical agents ameliorates stiffness and strength properties of expansive soils [27] Such soils are stabilized by incorporating multiple additives including traditional and nontraditional stabilizers [28] which are well documented in literature: lime [14, 29], cement [30,31,32], fly ash [33,34,35,36], rice husk ash [37,38,39,40], waste ceramic dust [41,42,43], nanosilica [44,45,46,47,48], calcium carbide residue [49,50,51], and so on. The varying proportion of sugarcane bagasse ash (SCBA) and waste marble dust (WMD) has been employed as geomaterials for treating the expansive soils to evaluate their efficacy or otherwise in improving plasticity, compactability, swell potential, and strength characteristics. A simplified qualitative depiction of representative soil lime-SCBA (pozzolanic) reactions is given in the following equations [27]: Ca(OH)2 ⟶ Ca2++2OH−
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