Geotechnical Properties of Lateritic Soil Stabilized with Ground-Nut Husk Ash

Abstract

This study assesses the geotechnical properties of lateritic soil stabilized with Ground-nut Husk Ash. Preliminary tests were carried out on the natural soil sample for identification and classification purposes, while consistency limits tests were thereafter carried out as well. Engineering property tests such as California Bearing Ratio (CBR), Unconfined Compressive Strength (UCS) and compaction tests were performed on both the natural soil sample and the stabilized lateritic soil, which was stabilized by adding Ground-nut Husk Ash, GHA, in percentages of 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 by weight of the soil. The results showed that the addition of GHA enhanced the strength of the soil sample. The Maximum Dry Density (MDD) reduced from 1960 kg/m3 to 1760 kg/m3 at 10% GHA by weight of soil. The Optimum Moisture Content (OMC) increased from 12.70% to 14.95%, also at 10% GHA by weight of soil. The unsoaked CBR values increased from 24.42% to 72.88% finally, the UCS values increased from 510.25 kN/m2 to 1186.46 kN/m2, for both CBR and UCS, the values were at 10% GHA by weight of soil. It was therefore concluded that GHA performs satisfactorily as a cheap stabilizing agent for stabilizing lateritic soil especially for subgrade and sub base purposes in road construction.

Investigation of the impact of palm bunch ash on the stabilization of poor lateritic soil

“…A pozzolana is a silicious material which in itself does not possess cementitious properties but will in finely divided form and in the presence of water react with calcium hydroxide Ca(OH)2. The PBA qualifies as a pozzolana since the percentage sum of its SiO2, Al2O3 and Fe2O2 components (76.9%) exceeds the minimum requirement of 50% [21]. The PBA is the natural, very finely divided, highly reactive type of pozzolana.…”

“…This result is similar to that obtained by [1] in which the optimum CBR occurred at 15% PBA content. This is attributed to the fact that PBA in its finely divided form in the presence of water reacts with Ca(OH)2 to form cementitious compounds [21]. It was observed that after stabilization with PBA, the CBR of the lateritic soil+PBA mixture increased from 3% to 8% and 32% respectively for the soaked and unsoaked samples.…”

The Effect of Groundnut Shell Ash on Soil Stabilization

“…Assessing the impact of stabilizers on soil strength involves looking at changes in consistency limits, compaction characteristics, undrained cohesion, and modulus of elasticity. The investigation of the durability properties of stabilized soil employed the augmentation of undrained shear strength over many days of curing by increasing the percentage of cement [1][2][3][4][5][6]. The stabilized soil's strength and uniformity increased to a suitable level [1].…”

Structural Performance of Laterite soil Stabilised with Cement and Blue Gum (Eucalyptus Globulus) Wood Ash for Use as a Road base Material

“…The effect of ash from the ground-nut husk on the geotechnical properties of a lateritic soil was studied in [8]. Proctor compaction, CBR, and UCS tests were performed on both unstabilized and stabilized soil with ground-nut husk ash.…”