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Onyelowe, K. C.
Department of Civil Engineering, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike. P.M.B.7267, Umuahia 440001, Abia State
Ubachukwu, O. A.
Department of Civil Engineering, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike. P.M.B.7267, Umuahia 440001, Abia State
ABSTRACT
The growing cost of
known conventional stabilizing agents, the need to rid the environment of
pollutant that could be converted to usable engineering materials and the need
for the economical utilization of industrial and agricultural waste for
beneficial engineering purposes have prompted an investigation into the
stabilizing potentials of Palm Bunch Ash (PBA) as admixture. In Nigeria
especially in the southern and western parts, lots of engineering projects
founded on soil fail primarily as a result of foundation soil failure. Results
from researches have shown that most of the engineering soils (lateritic soil)
borrow sites yield poor soil in terms of geophysical and geotechnical
properties which eventually render the soil material unfit to serve relevant
engineering purposes. As a result, there is need to improve on the engineering
properties of the soil by using admixtures hence this research work that was
targeted at improving the engineering
properties of Olokoro lateritic soil with PBA.
Index properties of the soil material
showed that it belongs to A–2–6 and GP under the AASHTO and Unified Soil
Classification Systems (USCS), respectively. Soils under these groups are of
poor engineering benefit. The soil was studied under varying proportions of the
PBA at 3%, 6%, 9%, 12% and 15% and subjected to soil Classification Test,
Compaction Test, Atterberg Limit Test and CBR Test. The results show an
increase in MDD and OMC after an initial decrease with PBA variations. The
California Bearing Ratio under unsoaked condition for the natural soil was
39.8% and the peak CBR of the stabilized soil was 69.4% which satisfies the use
of the stabilized sample as sub-grade material at 15% PBA.
Keywords: Palm bunch ash, stabilization, olokoro-umuahia, lateritic soil, admixture
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Published
Friday, December 18, 2015
Issue
Vol. 1 No. 2, DEC 2015
Article Section
GENERAL
The contents of the articles are the sole opinion of the author(s) and not of UJET.
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