Progress Report 1 CE088725

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
Malaysia is one of the nations that confronting and having soft soil issues. Make up to 70% of
the 5,000 km coastline of the nation and between 20 to 40 m in thickness of the soil, weak
soil like alluvial clayey ubiquitous in Malaysia. The climbing urbanization results in various
activities that are creeping towards seaside improvements because of lucrative requests.
However, these coastal areas containing weak soil can deterrent the development work in this
area. That is because the weak soil is vulnerable to the change of high water content that can
causes large volume changes ergo contributing to poor bearing capacity. Besides, it also tends
to be low in strength and durability.
In order to prevent the development works being deterrent, ground improvement
technology is introduced. Few techniques are available in stabilizing the soft soil. While
choosing the most suitable techniques, there are some criteria that needed to be put in
consideration such as environmental restrictions, economical provisions, availability of
equipment and materials etc.
Chemical admixture stabilization is one of the famous techniques that have been used
for decades to stabilize the structure of delicate soil. Lime, cement and fly ash are the
admixtures that have been widely used in this industry. Fly ash can be considered as one of
the newest technology in soil stabilization as researches about the PFA applications in soil
improvement are still widely going on in many countries and had just been introduced not
very long time ago. Fly ash is produced in the pulverised coal combustion process for electric
power-generating plants. In Malaysia, the main contributor of PFA is Tenaga Nasional
Berhad (TNB) and is estimated, more than 7,000 tons of PFA were produced daily. This huge
value of production should be utilized with right methods which are in this study, using the
PFA as the chemical admixtures for soil stabilization.

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1.2 Problem Statement
Soil stabilization is a technology presented numerous years prior with the fundamental reason
to provide the soils equipped for fulfilling the necessities of the particular engineering
projects such as improvement of shear strength, load bearing capacity, etc. There are few
methods of soil stabilization that have been used for decades but most of them are not
environmental friendly and require lots of money.
In this research, the chemical admixture stabilization by using fly ash and cement is
introduced. The fly ash will be the main material that will be used here. Fly ash can be
classified as hazardous Coal Combustion By-product (CCP), which can attributes to the
environmental pollution causes. Without the use of appropriate methods to dispose of this
material, it will be a source of health issues as related to the human respiratory system.
Besides that, it requires large areas and high cost for disposal purpose.
So here, there are so many benefits obtained. While reducing the risks of
environmental pollution in Malaysia, the cost of soft soil stabilization can also be reduced as
the fly ash can be obtained without costing any cents.

1.3 Objectives
The objective of this project is to design the soft soil subgrade stabilizer by finding the most
suitable amount of fly ash to be added and to improve the California Bearing Ratio (CBR)
value of soft soil subgrade and thus produce soil that fulfil the engineering properties to be
used in road constructions. Other than that, this project also aims to compare the CBR value
of 2 types of soft soils each divided to 4 samples with different amount fly ash and cement to
be added in dynamic compaction.

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1.4 Works Completed
This section explains what work that has been done during the reporting period. Here, I will
attach about the work completed in chronologically. For the works that I have been
completed, I have completed doing progress report 1. In this report, the items that supposed
to be highlighted are introduction and the literature review.
For this progress report 1, I have done some literature review by reading some journal
and articles. For the background section, I have included some background information of
this project and also clarify some project objectives of this project.

1.5 Problems Encountered

There were a few problems faced during my completion of my progress report 1 due to some
minor issues:1. The sources obtained from the internet was not much and there were some problem on
the server of the sciencedirect during the time I wanted to do some research
2. Time was a major problem in completing this progress report because I had two tests
in the past weeks but at least I manage to overcome my problem and able to manage
my time wisely.

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1.6 Works Schedule
Task
Stage 1
Meet assigned supervisor
to finalize title
FYP 1 Briefing
Research and Design
Methodology class
Prepare Progress Report
1
Literature Review
Progress Report 1
Stage 2
Literature Review
Design of Experiment
Set up Experiment
Procedure
Progress report 2
Stage 3
End of course survey
Oral presentation
Logbook submission

W1 W2 W3 W4 W5 W6 W7 W8 W9 W10 W11 W12 W13 W14

Table 1: Work Progress

Task
completed

To be Completed

There are a few tasks needed to be completed in the coming weeks:1. Arranging few tasks regarding the lab test for this project such as prepare the
materials and meet with the lab technician to discuss about the lab equipment that will
be needed in this project.
2. Update logbook.
3. Prepare for my Progress Report 2 which is due on 25th August 2014.

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1.7 Structure of Progress Report 1
This report made up of two chapters. For the Chapter 1, this section highlights the project
background, problem statement and objectives. The works completed, problem encountered
and works schedule also being mentioned in this chapter.
Then, for the Chapter 2, this section presents some literature review that allows the
readers to understand more about this project. It explains more about the some important
information about the project. For the example, in this project, it will explain to us the
pozzolonic reactions that occur during the soil stabilization and the CBR test.

1.8 Conclusion
This chapter gives the introduction so that the readers can get some pictures of this title. It
also describes briefly the background of the study and also the main objectives of the project.
For the literature review, it will be explained further in next chapter.

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CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Soft Soil Stabilization
Soil stabilization is a method used to improve soil strength and increasing resistance to
softening by water through bonding the soil particles together, water proofing the particles or
combination of the two. It is also called as ground improvement by many geotechnical
engineers. There are two major categories of ground improvement method which are
chemical stabilization and mechanical stabilization.

Chemical stabilization has been widely used in both shallow and deep stabilization in
order to improve inherent characteristics of the soil for example, strength and deformation
behavior. Soil stabilization depends mainly on chemical reactions between stabilizer
(cementitious material) and soil minerals (pozzolanic materials) to achieve the desired effect. A
chemical stabilization method is the fundamental of this review and, therefore, throughout the rest
of this report, the term soil stabilization will mean chemical stabilization.

The common chemical admixtures that have been used for soil stabilization are lime,
cement and fly ash. An improvement in soil workability, increment in strength, reduces in

plasticity and shrink-swell potential and increasing the durability of soil are the main aims of
the admixture stabilization. It will helps in flocculating the particles of soils if the soft soil are
dispersive while if the soils are hard to compact, it will helps in dispersing the particles and
assist the process.

2.2 Pozzolonic Reaction

Pozzolonic reaction is a chemical reaction that occurs during the soil stabilization process.
Before this reaction takes place in soil stabilization, dehydration of soil and ion exchange and
flocculation of soil will occur.

In dehydration process, only the electrolytic concentration and the pH of the pore
water will change. At this stage, no increment in the strength of soil will occur yet. During

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ion exchange and flocculation process, transformation of the soil structure begins, which is
flocculation and coagulation of soil particles into larger sizes aggregates and an associated
increase in plastic limit. These reactions tend to decrease the liquid limit, increase the plastic
limit, decrease the plasticity index, increase the shrinkage limit, increase the workability, and
improve the strength and deformation properties of a soil. Pozzolonic reaction will take place
after that. Cementing materials Calcium Silicate Hydrate and Calcium Aluminates Hydrate
(C-S-H and C-A-H) will be produced at this stage. These cementing materials are the main
factor to strengthen the soil.

2.3 Fly ash

Fly ash is a by-product of the pulverized coal combustion process usually associated with the
power-generating plants. It is removed from the plant exhaust gases primarily by electrostatic
precipitators or baghouses and secondarily by scrubber systems. Physically, fly ash is a very
fine, powdery material composed mostly of silica nearly all particles are spherical in shape.
Fly ash is generally light tan in color and consists mostly of silt-sized and clay-sized glassy
spheres. This gives fly ash a consistency somewhat like talcum powder.
Fly ash is a pozzolan, a siliceous material which in the presence of water will react
with calcium hydroxide at normal temperatures to produce cementitious compounds. Fly ash
is useful in cement and concrete applications because of its spherical shape and pozzolanic
properties. Besides, the shape also make it good mineral filler in hot mix asphalt applications
and improve the fluidity of flowable fill and grout when it is used for those applications.
PFA contains higher ratio of Al, Si and it also contains Ca and therefore it exhibits
pozzolanic behaviour that produces self-hardening case. Due to higher ratio of Al, Si and
CaO, the pozzolanic process will be smoother and will stabilize the soil better than other
types of fly ash. However, soil fly ash stabilization has some limitations such as soil to be
stabilized shall have less moisture content; therefore, dewatering may be required. Soil-fly
ash mixture cured below zero and then soaked in water is highly susceptible to slaking and
strength loss. Last but not least, sulfur contents can form expansive minerals in soil-fly ash
mixture, which reduces the long term strength and durability.

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2.4 Cement
Cement is the oldest pozzolanic material since the invention of soil stabilization technology
in 1960s. As it can be used alone to bring about the stabilizing action required, it may be
considered as primary stabilizing agent or hydraulic binder. Cement reaction is not dependent
on soil minerals, and the key role is its reaction with water that may be available in any soil.
This is why cement is used to stabilize a wide range of soils. There are many types of cement
are available in the market; for example ordinary Portland cement, blast furnace cement,
sulfate resistant cement and high alumina cement. The choice of cement usually depends on
type of soil to be treated and the desired final strength.
Hydration process is a process under which cement reaction takes place. The process
starts when cement is mixed with water and other components for a desired application
resulting into hardening phenomena. The hardening (setting) of cement will enclose soil as
glue, but it will not change the structure of soil .The hydration reaction is slow proceeding
from the surface of the cement grains and the centre of the grains may remain unhydrated.
Cement hydration is a complex process with a complex series of unknown chemical
reactions. However, this process can be affected by several cases which are the presence of
foreign matters or impurities, water-cement ratio, curing temperature, presence of additives
and specific surface of the mixture.

2.5 CBR Test

The CBR test is penetration test performed for the evaluation of subgrade strength of roads
and pavements. The results that recorded from these tests are used with the empirical curves
to determine the thickness of pavement and its component layers. This value is widely used
and applied in design of the base and the sub-base material for pavement.

The CBR test is carried out by measuring the pressure required to penetrate a soil
sample with a plunger of standard area. After that, the measured pressure is divided by the
pressure required to achieve an equal penetration on a standard crushed rock material. The
CBR value will increase as the hardness of surface increase. Usually, a value of 2%
represents to clay, while some sand may have CBR of 10%. High quality sub-base will have a
value between 80-100% (maximum).
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2.6 Factors Affecting Stabilized Soil

The undesirable strength of stabilized materials may occur because of the presence of organic
matters, sulphates, sulphides and carbon dioxide in the stabilized soils.

1. Organic matters
Most soil mainly contained large amount of organic matters on top of it. However,
organic matter may extend to a depth of 1.5 m in well drained soils. Soil organic
matters react with hydration product such as calcium hydroxide thus causes low pH
value. The resulting low pH value may delay the hydration process and the hardening
of stabilized soils will be affected making it difficult or impossible to compact.

2. Sulphates
The application of calcium-based stabilizer in sulphate-rich soils makes the stabilized
sulphate rich soil in the presence of excess moisture to react and form calcium
sulphoaluminate (ettringite) and or thamausite, the product which occupy a larger
volume than the combined volume of reactants. However, to dissolve sulphate in
order to permit the reaction to precede, excess water to one initially present during the
time of mixing may be needed.

3. Sulphides
In many of waste materials and industrial by-product, sulphides in form of iron pyrites
(FeS2) may be present. Oxidation of FeS2 will induce sulphuric acid, which in the
presence of calcium carbonate, may react to produce gypsum (hydrated calcium
sulphate) corresponding to the reactions (i) and (ii) below
i. 2FeS2 + 2H2O +7O2= 2FeSO4 + 2H2SO4
ii. CaCO3 + H2SO4 + H2O = CaSO4.2 H2O + CO2

The hydrated sulphate so formed, and in the presence of excess water may attack the
stabilized material in a similar way as sulphate. Nevertheless, gypsum can also be
found in natural soil.

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4. Compaction
Practically, the effect of addition of binder to the density of soil is of significant
importance. Unstabilized soil has greater maximum dry density than that of for a
given stabilized mixture degree of compaction. The optimal moisture content
increases with increasing binders. Hydration process takes place immediately after
cement comes into contact with water in cement stabilized soils.
This process involves hardening of soil mix which means that it is necessary
to compact the soil mix as soon as possible. Any delay in compaction may result in
hardening of stabilized soil mass and therefore extra compaction effort may be
required to bring the same effect. That may lead to serious bond breakage and hence
loss of strength.
Stabilized clay soils are more likely to be affected than other soils due to
alteration of plasticity properties of clays. Opposite to the cement, detain in
compaction for lime-stabilized soils may have some benefits. Lime stabilized soil
need mellowing time to allow lime to diffuse through the soil thus producing
maximum result on plasticity. After this period, lime stabilized soil may be remixed
and given its final compaction resulting into remarkable strength than otherwise

5. Moisture content
In stabilized soils, sufficient moisture content is essential not only for hydration
process to proceed but also for efficient compaction. Fully hydrated cement takes up
about 20% of its own weight of water from the surrounding; on other hand, Quicklime
(CaO) takes up about 32% of its own weight of water from the surrounding. If the
moisture content is not enough, it will cause binders to compete with soils in order to
obtain these amounts of moisture. For soils with great soil-water affinity (such as
clay, peat and organic soils), the hydration process may be delayed due to insufficient
moisture content, which will eventually affect the final strength.

6. Temperature
Pozzolanic reaction is sensitive to the changes in temperature. In the field,
temperature changes non-stop throughout the day. Pozzolanic reactions between
binders and soil particles will become slow at low temperature and thus resulted in

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lower strength of the stabilized mass. It may be advisable to stabilize the soil during
the warm season in cold areas.

7. Freeze-Thaw and Dry-Wet Effect

Stabilized soils cannot withstand freeze-thaw cycles. Therefore, it may be required to
protect the stabilized soils against frost damage in the field. Chemical reactions of the
binder will affect the shrinkage forces in stabilized soil. Cement stabilized soil are
adaptable to frequent dry-wet cycles due to diurnal changes in temperature which may
give rise to stresses within a stabilized soil and, therefore, should be protected from
such effects.

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References
1. A. Senol, Tuncer B. Edil, Md.Sazzad Bin Shafique, Hector A.A., Craig H.B., 2005.
Soft subgrades stabilization by using various fly ash. Resources, Conservation and
Reycling 46 (2006), 365-376.
2. S. Kolias, V. Kasselouri-Rigopolou, A. Karahalios, 2005. Stabilization of clayey soils
with high calcium fly ash and cement. Cement and Concrete Composites 27 (2005),
301-313.
3. Ambarish Ghosh, Utpal Dey, 2009. Bearing ratio of reinforced fly ash overlying soft
soil and deformation modulus of fly ash. Geotextiles and Geomembranes 27 (2009),
313-320.
4. J. Prabakar, Nitin Dendorkar, R.K. Morchhale, 2004. Influence of fly ash on strength
behavior of typical soils. Construction and Building Materials 18 (2004), 263-267
5. Gregory Paul Makusa. Soil Stabilization Methods and Materials. Department of Civil,
Environmental and Natural resources engineering, Division of Mining and
Geotechnical Engineering, Lule University of Technology, Lule, Sweden

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