Partial Replacement Effect of Firewood Ash (FWA) on the Geotechnical Properties of Clay Stabilized with Cement

Abstract

Abstract With the intention of providing a balance between the disposal of wastes generated from incineration processes and mitigate the emissions from industrial activities, the reuse of incineration waste as alternatives to conventional binders would offer a sustainable solution to reduce their environmental impact. This study aims to experimentally investigate the effect of firewood, ash (FWA) and ordinary Portland cement on some of the geotechnical properties of low plastic clayey soil (CL). The experimental program was introduced by partial replacement of ordinary Portland cement with firewood ash (FWA) up to 10 % with an increment of 2 %. A series of unconfined compressive test (UCT) and Atterberg limits test were performed. The results indicate that plasticity characteristics are affected by the addition of both cement and (FWA). Also, the results showed that the unconfined compressive strength increases for all replacement levels in comparison with the plain clay sample. The term deformability index (DI) also discussed with respect to different replacement level. The 70.61 % pozzolanic activity index indicates that (FWA) is a good pozzolan in accordance with ASTM C 618 specification. Finally, three modes of failure were detected which varying in accordance with the proportion of replacement.