Geotechnical Engineering Properties of Fly Ash and Well Graded Sand Treated Peat

Abstract

Peat is a kind of soft organic soil having partially disintegrated plant remains hence it is not good for constructions. Chemical stabilization is the commonly used ground improvement technique by adding chemical admixtures such as ordinary Portland cement, fly ash, natural fillers etc. Our research focused on sta- bilizing peat using a combination of fly ash and well graded sand. An experimental study was conducted to analyse the stabilization of peat with 125 kg/m dosage of well graded sand and fly ash at three various proportions 10, 20 and 30 % by weight. A series of experiments including Unconfined Compressive Strength (UCS) and Rowe cell test were conducted to evaluate the compressibility behaviour of stabilized peat. UCS increases up to 10 % fly ash addition and increases with curing period for all sample types. There is an improvement in settlement behaviour of peat after the above stabilization.