Consolidation Characteristics of Highly Plastic Clay Stabilised with Rice Husk Ash
Ashwani Jain1, Nitish Puri2
1Dr. Ashwani Jain is Professor in Department of Civil Engineering, National Institute of Technology, kurukshetra.
2Er. Nitish Puri is Assistant Professor in Department of Civil Engineering, HCTM Technical Campus, Kaithal.
Manuscript received on January 01, 2013. | Revised Manuscript received on January 02, 2013. | Manuscript published on January 05, 2013. | PP: 413-418 | Volume-2, Issue-6, January 2013. | Retrieval Number: F1208112612/2013©BEIESP
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© The Authors. Published By: Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering and Sciences Publication (BEIESP). This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Abstract: One-dimensional consolidation tests have been conducted to study the effect of addition of various percentages of rice husk ash on compressibility characteristics of highly plastic clay soil. Statically compacted soil specimens have been prepared at optimum moisture content and maximum dry density by adding 4, 8, 12, 16 and 20% by weight of rice husk ash to the parent soil. Specimens have been subjected to increments of vertical pressure of 0.25, 0.50, 1.00, 2.00 and 4.00 kg/cm2 in a fixed ring consolidometer. It has been observed due to the addition of rice husk ash to the parent clay, the optimum moisture increases and maximum dry density decrease with increase in percentage of rice husk ash. Coefficient of compressibility (av ) and coefficient of volume compressibility (mv ) show no significant trend for variation in values with change in proportion of rice husk ash in the soil at a particular effective stress. It has been observed that there is decrease in the values of these parameters with increase in effective stress for a particular percentage of rice husk ash. Compression index (Cc ) has been found to decrease significantly with increase in percentage of rice husk ash, hence decreasing consolidation settlement of parent material. It has also been observed that the time required for achieving a given degree of consolidation decreases with increase in the percentage of rice husk ash at a particular effective stress. Overall, it has been observed that rice husk ash effectively increase one-dimensional stiffness and therefore, reduce settlement.
Keywords: Rice husk ash (RHA), stabilization, compressibility, characteristics, maximum dry density and optimum moisture content.