Assessment of bamboo leaf ash/lime‑stabilized lateritic soils as construction materials

摘要

This paper evaluates the suitability of stabilized lateritic soils as highway and building (bricks) construction materials and therninfluence of locally available, cheap and environmental friendly stabilizer on the mechanical strength. The laboratory studyrnemployed four lateritic soil samples stabilized with varying amount of bamboo leaf ash (BLA) ranging from 2–8%. BLArnwas later kept constant at 5% and further added with lime (LSL) ranging between 2.5–10%. This resulted in four differentrnLATERITE–BLA–LSL mix which are mix-1 (20:1:0.5), mix-2 (20:1:1), mix-3 (20:1:1.5) and mix-4 (20:1:2), respectively.rnThe engineering properties of the specimens were evaluated through unconfined compression strength (UCS), CaliforniarnBearing Ratio (CBR), compressive strength and water absorption. The UCS for the stabilized soils increased as BLArnincreased from 2 to 6% and the mix increased from mix-1 to mix-4, with maximum UCS observed between 5–6% BLA andrnmix-3 (7.5% LSL). The soaked and unsoaked CBR values, which ranged between 10–44 and 27–76%, respectively, satisfiedrnthe minimum requirement for most building standards for subgrade and sub-base of 10 and 30%, respectively. Resultsrnof BLA + LSL bricks indicated that compressive strength increased, while water absorption decreased with increase in thernfiring temperature and percentage of stabilization, which met the American Standard for Testing Materials (ASTM) standardrnspecification for concrete building bricks. This study has shown the combined optimum improvement of soils and its suitabilityrnas subgrade, sub-base and building bricks construction materials.