Investigating Strength Behaviour of Pond Ash as a Construction fill material

Abstract

The use of sustainable materials has become a very important issue for the researchers and geotechnical engineers in construction of embankment for highways. Due to the combustion of coal for producing electricity, enormous amount of fly ash is produced, thus causing a serious threat of disposal and creating environmental and health problems. In India, where land to population ratio is too small, it is very difficult to dispose the fly ash on a huge area of land. So, to tackle the above stated problem, it is very important to utilize the fly ash in such a manner that it does not cause any harm to environment. The aim of this study was to conduct different laboratory tests on cement stabilized pond ash, so that it becomes suitable for geotechnical fill material. Cement was added in pond ash at different proportions and the effect of this addition was studied by analyzing the strength properties of pond ash. Synthetic fiber in the form of polypropylene was added to the optimum mix of cement-pond ash in different proportions. After adding the fiber in the optimum mix, flexural behavior was studied and the failure pattern with and without fiber was observed.