Effect of Sugarcane Bagasse Ash and Cement on the Engineering Properties of Soft Clay Soil

Abstract

The soil with low strength such as soft clay with swell and shrinkage properties causes bearing capacity failures and larger settlement problems. The life and maintenance of roads mainly depend on the strength of both sub-base and sub grade of soil and traffic intensity. Attempts have been made to improve the engineering properties by inclusion of different binding as well as industrial waste material with the soft clay soil. In this research an experimental investigation was conducted to study the effects of inclusion of cement and Sugarcane Bagasse Ash (SCBA) on soft clay soil. Tests were conducted on soil with cement (1, 2, 3, 4 and 5% by partial replacement by weight of dry soil) and soil with bagasse ash (5, 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50% by partial replacement by weight of dry soil). In order to understand the influence of addition of cement and bagasse ash, Unconfined Compressive Strength (UCS)   tests were performed. It was found that the increase in cement and bagasse ash increases the compressive strength of the soft clay. The test results shows that good improvement of soil  strength with increase in cement content up to 3%, and the rate of increase in strength reduced for further increase in cement content. The effective increase in soil strength was observed at 10% of BA mix with soil. The effective improvement reduces with increase in BA for tests conducted beyond 10% inclusion. To optimize the treatment of the soil, the improvement in strength for different percentage of SCBA were analyzed with soil+1% cement mix. The effect of cement and SCBA inclusion with soil and curing period on the UCS was studied. From the experimental results, it is clear that the inclusion of cement, SCBA and Cement+SCBA with the soil increases the UCS, however appreciable strength increment of more than 19% was observed with clay+1%cemnt+SCBA mix. Hence clay+1%cement+SCBA mix performs better in comparison with other combinations tested,  which can also be used as a sub-base material in flexible pavement.