A Comparative Study on Stabilization of Natural Medium Expansive Soil using Cement and Fly ash

Abstract

Soil is most unpredictable materials for civil engineering construction. The objective of this paper is to improve natural soil as a construction material using cement and fly ash. In this paper, ordinary portland cement and fly ash were evaluated as potential stabilizers in enhancing mechanical properties of natural soil. The soil collected from the selected side of Barisal region used in this study for soil stabilization by mixing various percentage of cement content 5%, 10% and 15% with respect to dry soil. The Unconfined Compression Strength (UCS) and California Bearing Ratio (CBR) test performed on curing period of 7 days, 14 days, 21 days and 28 days. Improvement of UCS and CBR values observed with the rapid increment in the percentages of cement and fly ash content. During treatments, Cement was the most effective treatment of this soil, where the soil mechanical property enhancements considered as significant. In addition, fly ash mixed soil strength development also considerable because of its cost-effectiveness. It also found that the strength and CBR values improve with the increasing of curing period. The suitability of the stabilization technique have been studied with respect to the cost and strength.