Effect of Curing Period and Binder Quantity on the Characteristics of Bagasse Ash-Calcium Carbide Residue Stabilized Organic Clay

Abstract

Organic clay has low bearing capacity, low shear strength, sensitive to water content, and high compressibility. Therefore, the study about engineering properties improvement of organic clay is continuously in progress. In this research, bagasse ash (BA) and calcium carbide residue (CCR) were used as stabilizing agents to improve engineering properties of organic clay. Preliminary investigation was done to get the physical parameters, especially Atterberg limit of soil samples. To get the optimum water content (OMC), the original soil was compacted according to standard compaction test. The oven dried soil was mixed with 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30% of binder and cured with 7,21,36 and 56 days curing period. Then, Atterberg limits, unconfined compression strength, and modulus of elasticity of treated soil were investigated. The plasticity index (PI) of stabilized soil decreases proportional to the binder quantity. However, after 10% binder, there was no significant improvement of PI of treated soil. With respect to curing period, PI of stabilized soil decreased, but the decrease of PI was almost constant from 36 to 56 days curing time. Unconfined compression strength (UCS) and modulus of elasticity of stabilized organic clay improve proportionally to both binder proportion and curing period. However, the improvement is not significant enough due to organic content in the organic clay.