Use of paddy husk ash as a binder in improvement of soft peaty clay

Abstract

Ground improvement in soft soils through pre-consolidation by preloading with or without vertical drains or vacuum consolidation has the main drawback of time consumption. Deep mixing with the cement is an alternative solution that has been studied and it was found that cement percentages of 20-30% are required to obtain a sufficient level of improvement. In view of the high cost involved the study of the use of paddy husk ash (PHA) also known as Rice Husk Ash (RHA)-another pozzolonic material which is a waste product of rice production has been conducted. Improvement through mixing natural peat with different proportions of cement and PHA was studied in this project. Engineering properties of samples comprise with different mix proportion of cement and PHA were compared with samples of untreated peat. Improvement in compressible characteristics and shear strength were evaluated through performing one dimensional consolidation test and undrained triaxial test.