Performance Evaluation of Red Clay Soils stabilized with Bluegum Sawdust Ash and Sisal Fiber as Low-Volume Road Sub-base Materials
Received: 19 August 2024 | Revised: 16 September 2024 | Accepted: 27 September 2024 | Online: 18 October 2024
Corresponding author: Wanangwa Chinkhuntha
Abstract
The engineering properties of Red Clay Soils (RCS) in tropical regions are frequently inadequate for road construction due to a number of factors, including high compressibility, high creep rates, high plasticity, low strength, and swelling potential. This research project examines the potential of stabilizing RCS using Bluegum Sawdust Ash (BSDA) and Sisal Fiber (SF) to develop a cost-effective and environmentally sustainable material for use in low-volume roadways. Tests were conducted on both unstabilized and stabilized soil samples to evaluate a range of physical properties, including Atterberg limits, compaction, Unconfined Compressive Strength (UCS), and California Bearing Ratio (CBR). BSDA was introduced in increments from 2% to 10% at 2% intervals, with 6% of it being optimal. This resulted in a reduction in the Plasticity Index (PI) from 20.78% to 10.90% and a significant increase in both the UCS and the CBR values. The addition of SF resulted in further enhancement of stabilization, with an increase in the soaked CBR to 28.12% and UCS to 736.011 kN/m³. This triphasic approach, which combines RCS, BSDA, and SF, offers a sustainable and economical solution for the construction of road subbases in civil engineering.
Keywords:
Red Clay Soils (RCS), Bluegum Sawdust Ash (BSDA), Sisal Fiber (SF), subbase material, low volume road constructionDownloads
References
A. Roy, "Soil Stabilization using Rice Husk Ash and Cement," International Journal of Civil Engineering Research, vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 49–54, 2014.
Z. Eliaslankaran, N. N. N. Daud, Z. M. Yusoff, and V. Rostami, "Evaluation of the Effects of Cement and Lime with Rice Husk Ash as an Additive on Strength Behavior of Coastal Soil," Materials, vol. 14, no. 5, Jan. 2021, Art. no. 1140.
H. Karim, M. Al-Recaby, and M. Nsaif, "Stabilization of soft clayey soils with sawdust ashes," MATEC Web of Conferences, vol. 162, 2018, Art. no. 01006.
T. E. Elahi, A. R. Shahriar, M. K. Alam, and M. Z. Abedin, "Engineering characteristics of soil stabilised with saw dust ash and cement," Geomechanics and Geoengineering, vol. 17, no. 6, pp. 1923–1940, Nov. 2022.
M. Otieno, C. Kabubo, and Z. Gariy, "Mechanical and Structural Correlation of Lateritic Soil Road Base Stabilized with Cement and Selected Biochars," Engineering, Technology & Applied Science Research, vol. 13, no. 4, pp. 11070–11077, Aug. 2023.
K. Jamaluddin and R. P. Munirwan, "Improvement of geotechnical properties of clayey soil with saw dust ash stabilization," E3S Web of Conferences, vol. 340, 2022, Art. no. 01009.
J. R. Oluremi, P. Yohanna, K. J. Osinubi, A. O. Eberemu, and T. S. Ijimdiya, "Reliability Evaluation of Compacted Tropical Red Soil Admixed with Waste Wood Ash for Use as Road Construction Material," IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering, vol. 640, no. 1, Nov. 2019, Art. no. 012079.
A. G. O. Moraes, M.-R. Sierakowski, T. M. Abreu, and S. C. Amico, "Sodium Borohydride as a Protective Agent for the Alkaline Treatment of Sisal Fibers for Polymer Composites," Composite Interfaces, vol. 18, no. 5, pp. 407–418, Jan. 2011.
B. T. Kamtchueng et al., "Geotechnical, chemical and mineralogical evaluation of lateritic soils in humid tropical area (Mfou, Central-Cameroon): Implications for road construction," International Journal of Geo-Engineering, vol. 6, no. 1, Feb. 2015, Art. no. 1.
M. M. Ahmat, M. M. E. Zumrawi, and O. Alphonce, "Performance of Sodium Chloride Blended with Silica Fume for Stabilizing Expansive Soils in Road Subgrade Applications," International Journal of Civil Engineering, vol. 11, no. 3, pp. 54–67, Mar. 2024.
BS 1377-2, Methods of test for soils for civil engineering purposes. Classification tests. London, UK: British Standards Institution, 1990.
BS 1377-2: Methods of test for soils for civil engineering purposes - Classification tests and determination of geotechnical properties. London, UK: British Standards Institution, 2022.
J. R. Cook, R. C. Petts, and J. Rolt, Low Volume Rural Road Surfacing and Pavements A Guide to Good Practice. London, UK: OTB, 2013.
S. G. Waweru, E. Asano, and M. Kimura, "Problematic soils in Kenya," in International Symposium on Problematic Soils, Tohoku, Japan, 1998, pp. 325–328
G. N. Hinga, "Performance of Red Soil Stabilized with Gravel and Lime in Construction of Low-Volume Roads in Nyeri County, Kenya," M.S. thesis, Civil Enginnering, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Kenya, 2021.
ASTM D2166-06: Standard Test Method for Unconfined Compressive Strength of Cohesive Soil. ASTM International, 2006.
Road Design Manual: Part III, Material and Pavement Design for New Roads. Nairobi, Kenya: Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, 1987.
ASTM D 854-92, Standard Test Methods for Specific Gravity of Soil Solids by Water Pycnometer. ASTM International, 2009.
T. Greening and P. O’Neill, "Traffic-Generated Dust from Unpaved Roads an Overview of Impacts and Options for Control," in 1st AFCAP Practitioners Conference, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Nov. 2010.
A. L. Yadav, V. Sairam, L. Muruganandam, and K. Srinivasan, "An overview of the influences of mechanical and chemical processing on sugarcane bagasse ash characterisation as a supplementary cementitious material," Journal of Cleaner Production, vol. 245, Feb. 2020, Art. no. 118854.
M. Adnan, S. Kumar, N. Garg, K. Kumar Gupta, and S. Kumar Das, "Soil stabilization using waste ‘Bagasse ash and lime’: A review," Materials Today: Proceedings, May 2023.
B. H. J. Pushpakumara and W. S. W. Mendis, "Suitability of Rice Husk Ash (RHA) with lime as a soil stabilizer in geotechnical applications," International Journal of Geo-Engineering, vol. 13, no. 1, Feb. 2022, Art. no. 4.
A. Ahmed and J. Kamau, "Suitability of Maize Cob Ash as a Partial Cement Replacement," Juniper Online Journal Material Science, vol. 2, no. 5, Sep. 2017, Art. no. 555599.
BS EN 197-1: Cement - Composition, specifications and conformity criteria for common cements. British Standards Institution, 2011.
J. Sani, M. George, R. Etim, U. Wilson, and O. Babatunde, "Stabilization of lateritic soil with cement and treated sisal fibre," Acta Technica Jaurinensis, vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 41–47, May 2022.
S. M. Kavitha, B. S. Mohamed, C. Muniyappan, R. Elavarasan, and V. S. Kumar, "Stabilization of soil using sisal, polypropylene and hybrid fibers," International Journal of Advance Research, Ideas and Innovations in Technology, vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 765–768, 2019.
F. de A. Silva, N. Chawla, and R. D. de Toledo Filho, "An experimental investigation of the fatigue behavior of sisal fibers," Materials Science and Engineering: A, vol. 516, no. 1, pp. 90–95, Aug. 2009.
F. Roland and T. Tangomo, "Structural performance of sisal fibers reinforced lightweight concrete with waste plastic pre-coated volcanic scoria aggregates," M.S. thesis, Institute for Basic Sciences Technology and Innovation, PAU, Nairobi, Kenya, 2018.
H. Owamah, E. Atikpo, O. Oluwatuyi, and A. Oluwatomisin, "Geotechnical properties of clayey soil stabilized with cement-sawdust ash for highway construction," Journal of Applied Sciences and Environmental Management, vol. 21, Feb. 2018, Art. no. 1378.
A. J. Gana and J. B. Tabat, "Stabilization of clay soil with cement and sawdust ash," CARD International Journal of Engineering and Emerging Scientific Discovery, vol. 2, no. 3, Sep. 2017.
T. H. T. Ogunribido, "Geotechnical Properties of Saw Dust Ash Stabilized Southwestern Nigeria Lateritic Soils," Environmental Research, Engineering and Management, vol. 60, no. 2, pp. 29–33, Jun. 2012.
Transport and Road Research Laboratory (TRRL), A Guide to the Structural Design of Bitumen-surfaced Roads in Tropical and Sub-tropical Countries. Wokingham, Berkshire, UK: Transport Research Laboratory, Overseas Centre, 1993.
S. A. Hassan, S. M. Shitote, and J. N. Thuo, "Investigation of the Impact of Tropical Red Clay Soils’ Mineralogical Composition on their Physical and Mechanical Properties– a Case Study Ruaka – Kenya," The Open Civil Engineering Journal, vol. 16, 2022, Art. no. e187414952209260.
T. D. Wilmot, "The Importance of Stabilization Techniques for Pavement Construction," in Research into Practice: 22nd ARRB Conference, Canberra , Australia, 2006
Asphalt Institute, The Asphalt Handbook, 7th ed. Lexington, KY, USA: Asphalt Institute, 2007.
L. Z. Wongbae, C. Kabubo, and A. Owayo, "The Effect of Waste Marble Dust and Corncob Ash on the Engineering and Micro-Structural Properties of Expansive Soil for Use in Road Subgrades," Engineering, Technology & Applied Science Research, vol. 14, no. 2, pp. 13765–13772, Apr. 2024.
O. Amu, S. A. Ogunniyi, and O. O. Oladeji, "Geotechnical Properties of Lateritic Soil Stabilized with Sugarcane Straw Ash," American Journal of Scientific and Industrial Research, vol. 2, pp. 323–331, Apr. 2011.
O. G. Ingles, Soil stabilization: principles and practice,. Sydney, Australia: Butterworths, 1972.
M. Budhu, Soil Mechanics and Foundations, 3rd ed. Hoboken, NJ, USA: Wiley, 2010.
R. F. Craig, Soil Mechanics, 7th ed. London, UK: CRC Press, 2004.
J. D. Coleman, D. M. Farrar, and A. D. Marsh, "The Moisture Characteristics, Composition and Structural Analysis of a Red Clay Soil from Nyeri, Kenya," Géotechnique, vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 262–276, Sep. 1964.
Downloads
How to Cite
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Wanangwa Chinkhuntha, Alphonce Owayo, Nathaniel Ambassah
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain the copyright and grant the journal the right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) after its publication in ETASR with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
