SSRG International Journal of Civil Engineering (SSRG-IJCE) – EFES April 2015

ISSN: 2348 – 8352 www.internationaljournalssrg.org Page 37

Stabilization of Local Soil with Bagasse Ash #1

Ashish Murari, Istuti Singh*2

, Naman Agarwal*3

Ajit Kumar#4

#1,2,3M-Tech student, Department of Civil Engineering, G.B.P.U.A&T Pantnagar, Uttarakhand, India 4 Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, G.B.P.U.A&T Pantnagar, Uttarakhand, India

Abstract— A large number of infrastructure projects are being

installed in almost every part of our country .The wastes of

industries and agriculture adversely affect the environment as high

land area will be required for their disposal and when they

disintegrate, results in the production of harmful gases causing,

soil contamination, land fill space and many other hazardous

effects. In India, the rate of generation of solid waste is found to be

increasing at a very rapid rate in past few years. Soil stabilization is

a process that improves the engineering properties of soil such as

strength, volume stability and durability. Expansive soils are those

whose volume changes significantly when it comes in contact with

water and are therefore, problematic to structures. Therefore, there

arises a need to stabilize the soil and to solve the problem of the

waste disposal. Sugar Cane Bagasse Ash (S.C.B.A.), a waste

material from the sugar industry is used as a stabilizer in modifying

the properties of the soil. These materials can be utilized in various

civil engineering works. A study is carried out to check the

improvement in the properties of the soil with bagasse ash in

varying percentages (2, 5, 7& 10%). The test results such as liquid

limit, plastic limit, and standard proctor test were obtained on soil

at different percentages of Bagasse Ash. The results show that with

the increase in the percentage of bagasse ash the liquid limit and

plastic limit gets reduced.

Keywords— Local available soil, Waste Material, S.C.B.A,

Stabilization

I. INTRODUCTION

Waste material is a challenge for the cities

authorities in almost all developing countries

mainly due to the increasing generation of waste.

The rapid growth of industrialization and

urbanization has resulted in the generation of many

wastes all over the world. Though growth of

industries is the necessity of the society, but its

negative impacts on the environment and social life

cannot be ignored. Today world faces a serious

problem in disposing large quantity of agricultural

waste.

It is a well known fact that expansive soils behaves

like very soft material on wetting and pose a variety

of problems to the structures, pavements etc. made

on them. Expansive soil has a high potential for

swelling and shrinking due to change of moisture

content .These soil can be found on almost all the

continents of the world. The quality of soil has a

very large impact on type of structure and its design.

To overcome this problem, stabilization of weak

expansive soil is important. Soil stabilization is the

treatment done on the soils to improve their

properties so that they become suitable for

construction over them. It is important to mention

here that recent trends on soil stabilization have

evolved innovative techniques of utilizing locally

available environmental and industrial waste

material for the modification and stabilization of

deficient soil. In the process of soil stabilization and

modification emphasis is given for maximum

utilization of local material so that cost of

construction may be minimized to the minimum

extent. Previous researchers have shown that Sugar

Cane Bagasse Ash (S.C.B.A.), a waste material

from the sugar industry can be used as a stabilizer

in modifying the properties of the soil. These

materials can be utilized in various civil

engineering works. Bagasse ash is a residue

obtained from the burning of bagasse in sugar

producing factories. Bagasse is the cellular fibrous

waste product after the extraction of the sugar juice

from cane mills. It is currently used as a bio fuel

and in the manufacture of pulp and paper products

and building materials. For each 10 tons of

sugarcane crushed, a sugar factory produces nearly

3 tons of wet bagasse which is a by-product of the

sugar cane industry. When this bagasse is burnt the

resultant ash is bagasse ash.

II. LITERATURE REVIEW

Gandhi (2012) successfully worked on improving

the existing poor and expansive sub grade soil

using Bagasse ash. Bagasse ash effectively dries

wet soils and provides an initial rapid strength

gain, which is useful during construction in wet,

unstable ground conditions. The swell potential of

expansive soils decreases by replacing some of

the volume previously held by order to evaluate

SSRG International Journal of Civil Engineering (SSRG-IJCE) – EFES April 2015

ISSN: 2348 – 8352 www.internationaljournalssrg.org Page 38

the possibility of their use in the industry. He

conducted tests like Liquid Limit, Plastic Limit,

Plasticity Index, Shrinkage Limit, Free Swell

Index and Swelling Pressure with the increasing

percentage of Bagasse ash at 0 %, 3%, 5%, 7%

and 10% respectively .He found out that as the

percentage of bagasse ash increases in the soil

sample, all the properties decrease.

Kiran R. G., Kiran L (2013) carried out for

different percentages (4%, 8% and 12%) of

bagasse ash and additive mix proportions. The

strength parameters like CBR, UCS were

determined. It was observed that blend results of

bagasse ash with different percentage of cement

for black cotton soil gave change in density, CBR

and UCS values. The density values got

increased from 15.16 KN/m3 to 16.5 KN/m

3 for

addition of 8% bagasse ash with 8% cement,

Then CBR values got increased from 2.12 to 5.43

for addition of 4% bagasse ash with 8% cement

and UCS values got increased to 174.91 KN/m2

from 84.92 KN/m2 for addition of 8% bagasse ash

with 8% cement.

M. Chittaranjan, M. Vijay, D. Keerthi (2011)

studied the ‘Agricultural wastes as soil stabilizers’.

In this study Agricultural wastes such as sugar cane

bagasse ash, rice husk ash and groundnut shell ash

are used to stabilize the weak sub grade soil. The

weak sub grade soil is treated with the above three

wastes separately at 0%, 3%, 6%, 9%,12%and 15%

and CBR test is carried out for each per cent .The

results of these tests showed improvement in CBR

value with the increase in percentage of waste.

Kharade et al (2014) worked on bagasse ash can

be used as stabilizing material for expansive soils.

Various experiments were conducted on black

cotton soil with partial replacement by Bagasse Ash

at 3%, 6%, 9% and 12% respectively. It was seen

that due to addition of bagasse ash, CBR and

Compressive strength increases almost by 40%, but

density showed only significant change. The blend

suggested 6% bagasse ash, without any addition of

cementing or chemical material would be an

economic approach. Further more if any cementing

material is added in suggested blend, then there will

be definitely more improvement in properties of

expansive soils.

III. MATERIAL USED

A. Soil The soil for this study was procured from Sitarganj,

U.S. Nagar, Uttarakhand, India. The material was

extracted from 2 m below the ground surface. Index

properties of the soil were determined as per IS

codes and are presented in Table -1. The soil is

classified as CL.

TABLE 1

PHYSICAL PROPERTIES of SOIL

B. Bagasse Ash

Bagasse ash used in this study is taken from “The

Kisan Sahkari Chini Mills Ltd.” Sitarganj, district

Udham Singh Nagar, (U.S. Nagar), Uttarakhand.

The bagasse ash was collected from the boiler area.

Fig. 1

IV. EXPERIMENTAL PROGRAMME

The proportions of Bagasse ash used along with the

soil in the study are 2% 5%, 7% and 10%

respectively. In order to determine maximum dry

density (MDD) and optimum moisture content

(OMC) of soil and soil-bagasse mix, standard

proctor tests were conducted as per IS: 2720 (Part

VII)-1980. The liquid limit and plastic limit were

done according to IS: 2720 :( Part V) 1985.

V. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

A series of laboratory tests (liquid limit, plastic

limit, specific gravity and optimum moisture

Parameter Value

Specific gravity (G) 2.67

Bulk Density (γ), g/cm3 2.07

Plasticity Index 13

Maximum dry density (γd max), g/cm3

(Standard Proctor Test) 1.793

Optimum moisture content (OMC), % 15.30

Natural Moisture Content 11.5

Grain size distribution

Sand size fraction (%)

Silt size fraction (%)

Clay size fraction (%)

10.4

70.88

18.72

Soil type as per IS: 1498-1970 CL

SSRG International Journal of Civil Engineering (SSRG-IJCE) – EFES April 2015

ISSN: 2348 – 8352 www.internationaljournalssrg.org Page 39

content) have been performed with soil and by

adding different percentages of bagasse ash

TABLE 2

S.N

o.

Sample L.L

.

P.L. P.I OMC MDD

1 Soil + 0% B.A. 35 22 13 15.30 1.793

2 Soil + 2% B.A. 33 22 11 16 1.769

3 Soil + 5% B.A. 30 20 10 16.70 1.722

4 Soil + 7% B.A. 28 19 9 17 1.701

5 Soil + 10%

B.A.

26 17 9 18 1.692

VI. CONCLUSIONS

From the results it is clear that a change in the

properties of the soil takes place. When bagasse ash

is mixed with the soil, the plastic limit and the

liquid limit decreases. This change of Atterberg’s

limit is due to the cation - exchange reaction and

flocculation aggregation for more amount of

bagasse ash, which reduces plasticity index of soil.

A reduction in plasticity index causes a significant

decrease in swell potential and removal of some

water that can be absorbed by clay minerals.

The reduction in dry density is a result of

flocculation and agglomeration of fine grained soil

particles which occupy larger space leading to a

corresponding drop in maximum dry density. The

optimum moisture content of soil increases with

increase in Bagasse Ash because these admix was

finer than the soil.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

I must offer my profound gratitude to my thesis

advisor Dr. Ajit Kumar, Professor, Civil

Engineering Department and also to staff members

of Civil Engineering Laboratories for their

assistance and cooperation during the course of

experimentation. I would like to thank everyone for

encouraging and helping to shape my interests and

ideas. REFERENCES

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[2] Kiran R.G. and Kiran L. “Analysis of strength characteristics of Black cotton soil using Bagasse ash and additives as stabilizer”,

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[3] Moses G. and Osinubi K.J. “Influence of compactive efforts on cement bagasse ash treatment of expansive black cotton soil”

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industry can be used as stabilizing material for expansive soils”

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