STUDY ON UNCONFINED COMPRESSIVE STRENGTH OF POND ASH SOIL MIXTURE REINFORCED WITH JUTE GEOTEXTILES

In the present investigation a series of laboratory tests has been performed to study the unconfined compression strength of soil, pond ash and also pond ash mixed soil for both unreinforced and reinforced conditions. With increase in pond ash content (0 % to 30%) of the pond ash mixed soil, the value of unconfined compression strength decreases significantly, whereas, with addition of pond ash ( above 40 % ) the changes of unconfined compression strength of pond ash mixed soil is not appreciable. With introduction of jute geotextile layers of reinforcement to the samples ( soil, pond ash, and soil pond ash mixture ) the values of unconfined compression strength increases significantly. A non linear power model has been developed to predict the unconfined compression strength of soil pond ash mixture reinforced with jute geotextile layers of reinforcement in terms of unconfined compression strength of unreinforced soil pond ash mixture, number of layers of jute geotextile reinforcement and also pond ash content ( % ).