Soil Stabilization using Rice Husk Ash and Cement

Soil stabilization has become a major issue in construction engineering and the researches regarding the effectiveness of using industrial wastes are rapidly increasing. The present experimental work briefly describes the suitability of the locally available Rice Husk Ash (RHA) to be used in the local construction industry in a way to minimize the amount of waste to be disposed to the environment causing environmental pollution. The common soil stabilization techniques are becoming costly day by day due to the rise of cost of the stabilizing agents like, cement, lime, etc. The cost of stabilization may be minimized by replacing a good proportion of stabilizing agent using RHA. It will minimize the environmental hazards also. Soil sample taken for the study is clay with high plasticity (CH) which truly requires to be strengthened. The soil is stabilized with different percentages of Rice Husk Ash and a small amount of cement. Observations are made for the changes in the properties of the soil such as Maximum dry density (MDD), Optimum moisture content (OMC), California bearing ratio (CBR) and Unconfined compressive stress (UCS). The results obtained show that the increase in RHA content increases the OMC but decreases the MDD. Also, the CBR value and UCS of soil are considerably improved with the RHA content. From the observation of maximum improvement in strength, 10% RHA content with 6% cement is recommended as optimum amount for practical purposes. Observing the tremendous improvement of CBRvalue of soil, the present soil stabilization technique may mostly be recommended for construction of pavement.