Enhancing Compressive Strength of Laterite Soil through the Agricultural Waste Material Bamboo Ash Stabilization

Abstract

All types of soil are used as the ground foundation to support the construction of any structures including roads and buildings. Laterite soil has the properties of cohesive and cohesionless soil. This is because its properties are mostly well-graded including silt, clay, sand, and gravel. However, laterite soil's physical and mechanical properties require improvement. Potential laterite soil used for the construction of roads and development activity is necessary for geotechnical application. Therefore, this research aims to study the performance stability in compressive strength of native laterite soil with bamboo ash (BA). The testing experiments have shown that the behavior of bamboo ash is used to strengthen the laterite soil resulting in the bamboo ash enhancing the performance of laterite formation in ground improvement. In this study, 0%, 5%, 10%, 15%, and 20% bamboo ash content were used to study the effect of BA on native lateritic soils at 0, 3, and 7 days of curing. It is indicated that the strength for 3 curing days increases strength to 8.4% after adding 5% BA. It increases the strength after adding 10%, 15%, and 20% with the percentage of the increments 7.2%, 1.7%, and 0.7%, respectively. In the physical properties results, the specific gravity of soil shows an average of 1.66. As a result, LL and PL have been identified as 29% and 14.1% respectively. Lateritic soil water content measured in this study was 10.84%. Compaction tests identify MDD as 1.807 g/cm3, while OMC content is 13.3%. Lateritic soils are classified as sedimentary sandy soils according to the results of particle distribution soil tests. In the end, the results identified for enhancement of the addition of bamboo ash show a strong increment for lateritic materials. Bamboo ash (BA) appears secondary in large-scale studies. BA reacts as an economical and sustainable treatment material in geotechnical applications.