Behaviour of a Strip Footing on Compacted Pond Ash Reinforced with Coir Geotextiles

Abstract

Pond ash, produced in huge quantities by thermal power plants, require large land area for disposal and causes environmental hazards. The pond ash can be effectively used as a fill material for low lying areas as site reclamations and in embankments. The low bearing capacity of pond ash fills can be improved by using coir geotextiles, as reinforcement which will be an eco-friendly approach. The effectiveness of horizontally placed coir geotextiles, as reinforcement in single and multiple layers, on the bearing capacity of compacted pond ash is investigated. In the present study, the bearing capacity behaviour of a strip footing on two pond ash samples reinforced with two types of woven coir geotextiles has been studied by load bearing tests in model tanks in the laboratory. The parameters varied during the tests were width of reinforcement, depth of the top reinforcement layer below the base of the footing and the number of geotextile layer. The improvement of ultimate bearing capacity was studied. The ultimate bearing capacity ratios were evaluated. A mathematical model based on the geometric parameters of the reinforcement, tensile properties of reinforcement and shear parameter of pond ash has been developed.