A STUDY ON STRENGTH IMPROVEMENT OF

EXPANSIVE SOIL BY USING FLY ASH, LIME AND FIBER

Department of Civil Engineering

Under the Esteemed Guidance of

Dr. Monowar Hussain
BY BONU VASUDEVA TIRUPATHI NAIDU(14-21-407)

Content

Aim
Introduction
materials
Objective and scope
Literature review
Work Progress till date
Future work
Reference

 Aim: To improve the fly ash & clayey soil properties by adding the soil stabilizing

agents and enhance the utilisation of fly ash for geotechnical purpose.

introduction
Large quantities of coal are being burnt in thermal power stations to meet

the ever increasing demand for thermal power.

Combustion of coal results in a residue consisting of inorganic mineral
constituents and organic matter which is not fully burned.
The inorganic mineral constituents form ash: 80% of this ash is fly ash. The
production of fly ash is expected to increase to about 1000 million tons by
the year AD 2000.
Environmentally safe disposal of large quantities of ash is not only tedious
but also expensive. To reduce the problems of disposal, great efforts are
being made to utilize fly ash.
Bulk uses of fly ash are found in many geotechnical applications such as
embankments, fill behind retaining walls, dams, etc.

Materials:
1.fly ash
2.lime
3.fiber

Fly ash: Fly ash is finally divided residue resulting from the combustion of
powdered coal and transported by the flue gases and collected by electrostatic
precipitator.

 Lime :

 Polypropylene fiber:
Fiber used in the present investigation is polypropylene fiber manufactured

from high-density polypropylene and polyethylene. It is totally resistant to

sea water, acids, alkalies, and chemicals.
It has high breaking strength and abrasion resistance as it is less prone to
wear and tear.
Polypropylene yields the greatest volume of fibre for a given weight. This
high yield means that polypropylene fibre provides good bulk and cover,
while being lighter in weight.
Polypropylene is the lightest of all fibres and is lighter than water.

Objective:
The necessity for the utilisation of fly ash.
Investigate the engineering properties and characteristics of fly ash.
To identify the engineering properties of clayey soil.
Investigate the strength gain of composite material aspects associated

with the fly ash.

Establishment of better suitable combinations of fly ash-limepolypropylene fibre compositions for different tests for laboratory
conditions.
Soil and fly ash were mixed in varying percentages and optimized for
maximum dry density conditions.

Scope:
An attempt is made to study how fly ash, fibres, lime may be effectively

utilized in combination with a clayey soils to get an improved quality of

composite material which may be used in various geotechnical purpose.
Effect of curing period on unconfined compressive strength and CBR value
of lime, fibres treated fly ash.
Effect of lime, fibres content on the strength aspect of fly ash.

Literature Review
Use of the fly ash in road sub bases, airfield footpaths, structural landfills, and

embankments are some of the areas that have at attracted the attention of the
construction industry. Among the various waste materials, fly ash has shown better
results as sub base material (Kumar et al. 2008).
Sivapullaiah et al. (2000) examined the amount of lime required to attain optimum

strength for fly ashes at different curing periods.

Prabakar et al. (2003) mainly deals with the effect of fly ash addition in three types

of soils (These three different types of soil have been considered using different
percentage of fly ash ranging from 9 to 46% by weight of soil) on compaction; shear
strength, CBR value and swelling characteristics to asses the usefulness of fly ash for
modifying the soil structure, to improve the load bearing capacity.

 Sivakumar babu and vasudevan (2006) presented a few experimental

results on the use of coir fibers in reducing the seepage velocity of soils.
Since fibers are distributed throughout a soil mass, they impart strength
isotropy and reduce the possibility of formation of weak zones and
contribute to improved piping resistance.
Kumar et al. (2007) found that unconfined compressive strength of highly

compressible clay increases with the addition of fibers and it further

increases when fibers are mixed in clay sand mixtures.

Influence of Fly Ash, Lime, and Polyester Fibers on

Compaction and Strength Properties of Expansive Soil reported by Arvind
kumar et al.(2007)
Lime 1-10%
Fly ash 1-20%
Fiber 0-2%
Optimum content of fly ash and lime is 15% and 8% respectively.

Strength and deformation characteristics of fly ash mixed with randomly

distributed plastic waste reported by Sivakumar babu et al.(2014)
Plastic waste chips 0,0.5,0.75,1%
Different percentages of fly ash
Effective length 10-20mm
Effective thickness 0.2mm
Aspect ratio 20-40mm

compressive strength of fiber reinforced highly compressible clay reported by

Arvind kumar
Length of the plain fiber 3,6,12mm
Length of crimped fiber 6mm
Diameter 30-40 micro meter

Methodology:
Material selection: fly ash, lime, fiber, bentonite
Determination of basic properties.
Finding the optimum content of lime, fiber, fly ash mix by performing.
Compaction test, UCS test, UU test, CBR test.
Study the effect of improving fly ash in geotechnical purpose.

Work Progress till date

100
90
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70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0

Literature review
Analysis of data

Future Work

Material collection
Lab work
Data collection
Analysis of data

Future work
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0

Literature review
Material collection
Data collection
Analysis of data

Reference:
Praveen Kumar and ShalendraPratap Singh (2008), Fiber - Reinforced Fly

Ash Sub bases in Rural Roads, journal of transportation engineering, ASCE,

vol.134, PP.171-180.
P.V.Sivapullaiah, J.P.Prashanth and A.Sridharan(2000), optimum lime
content for fly ashes and the role of the curing period, journal of testing and
evaluation Vol.28,PP.499-506.
P.V.Sivapullaiah, J.P.Prashanth, A.Sridharan and B.V.Narayana(1998),
Reactive silica and strength of fly ashes, geotechnical and geological
engineering, vol.16, PP.239-250.
Arvind Kumar, Baljit Singh Walia and Asheet Bajaj(2007),Influence of fly
ash, lime, and polyester fibers on compaction and strength properties of
expansive soil , journal of materials in civil engineering
ASCE,vol:19,PP:242-248.
J.prabakar, Nitin Dendorkar and R.K. Morchhale (2003) Influence of fly
ash on strength behaviour of typical soils construction and building materials
vol18, PP.263-267.

 G. L. SivakumarBabu and A. K. Vasudevan (2008) Strength and

Stiffness Response of Coir Fiber-Reinforced Tropical Soil, journal of

materials in civil engineering ASCE vol. 20, PP: 571-577.
Hongtao Jiang, Yi Cai and Jin Liu (2010) Engineering Properties of Soils
Reinforced by Short Discrete Polypropylene Fiber journal of materials in
civil engineering ASCE VOL:22,PP:1315-1322.
Chaosheng Tang, Bin Shi, Wei Gao, Fengjun Chen and Yi Cai
(2007),Strength and mechanical behaviour of short polypropylene fiber
reinforced and cement stabilized clayey soil, Geotextiles and
Geomembranes VOL.25 PP:194202.
G. L. SivakumarBabu and M.E. Raja Jaladurgam (2014), Strength and
Deformation Characteristics of Fly Ash Mixed with Randomly Distributed
Plastic Waste, J. Mater. Civ. Eng. 2014.vol: 26

THANK YOU