Author : Suresh Murugan and Murugaiyan Vijayarangam

Industrial waste materials are utilized to improve the problematic soils which are cost efficient and eco friendly method. The present paper evaluated the influence of fly ash on the commercial and natural soil to improve its geotechnical properties. In this experiment, Atterberg’s limit, maximum dry density (MDD), optimum moisture content (OMC) of the samples with various fly ash proportions (at 10%, 20%, 30% and 40%) was analyzed. The main objective of this study is to investigate the improvement of shear strength on soils were evaluated using unconfined compression strength (UCC) test. The test results showed a significant change in the geotechnical properties of samples with fly ash. The UCC values improved by using fly ash from 108 kPa to 171 kPa for natural soil. The commercial soil obtained the optimum strength about 228 kPa at 10% of fly ash on the soil.

Keywords: Waste utilization, Fly ash, Expansive soil, Shear strength, UCC test.