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Dr.Pulpong, Dr. Kreingsak, and Dr.Amin it’s a great honour this morning to present you
my research work entitled “ Geotechnical properties of rice husk ash-lime-soil mixtures and its
performance as subgrade material”.

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I will start off with introduction and background of the research after that it is the
literature review and then we move to the research procedure. The fourth part will show you
results and achievements and after that we go to the final part of the presentation which is the
conclusion.

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Since all structures undeniably stand on the ground, their constructions naturally
encounter problems regarding the ground conditions. If the construction is road construction, the
problem would be like these pictures which is caused by clayey soil. The ground condition is soft
and sticky. roads are lines of communication which ensures safe and effective transportation of
people and goods. In case roads are in condition which you are seeing, smooth transportation
cannot be realized.

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The method to solve this issue can be the mechanical modification which can be said the
soil compaction. Unfortunately, this method does not work with clayey soil. Clays are sensitive
with water. They swell when they contact with water and it will end up like pictures which were
shown earlier. Another alternative way to solve this problem is to replace the clayey soil by
better-in-strength material. This practice will permanently eliminate the problematic soil.
However, the transported problematic soil remains its poor engineering properties regardless
where it is placed.

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 Chemical treatment would be one of better options for clayey soil improvement. What we
did in this research is we used rice husk ash and quicklime to stabilize Bangkok clay. The
mechanism of the chemical reaction is Silica and alumina from Bangkok clay, silica from rice
husk ash react with calcium oxide from quicklime to create binding gels which are calcium
silicate hydrate and calcium aluminate hydrate. The pozzolanic reaction turn Bangkok clay better
both in terms of strength and swelling character.

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Now, Let’s take a look at the literature review.

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This is the boundary of BKK clay. BKK clay can be found in the area that is bounded on
the west by the western mountain ranges and on the east by the Petchabun mountain ranges and
part of the western edge of the Khorat Plateau. According to various authors here, BKK clay
contains natural water approximately 70% and has liquid and plastic behavior at 70% and 30%
respectively.

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Based on these authors, the main chemical compositions of BKK clay are SiO2, Al2O3,

and Fe2O3. The scanning electron microscopy pictures can be seen here as well.

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For rice husk ash, it has been used in various applications such as:

silica gel manufacture

lithium-ion batteries production

portland cement production

metal production

amorphous silica and silicon manufacture

Application in low cost construction materials (bricks)

So basically, this research is a part of RHA’s application in soil stabilization.

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As can be seen here, the major chemical component of RHA is SiO2 which normally
takes more than 85% of the proportion. As scanning electron microscopy shows, RHA has
particles containing voids.

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Several published papers have been reviewed and summarized into tables test-by-test
which are Atterberg limits, Compaction test, Unconfined compressive test called in short UCS,
California Bearing Ratio called in short CBR.

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Basically, all tables including are Atterberg limits, Compaction test, Unconfined
compressive test, California Bearing Ratio have columns indicating types of additives, soil types,
amount of additive, result, remark, and reference. And this is the table of Atterberg limits test.

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This the table of compaction test.

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Regarding Compaction properties, optimum moisture content increases as long as amount

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This is the table of UCS test.

In terms of strength, UCS strength gets better when we add RHA or lime or cement to
soil. The UCS values turn even significantly greater when we combine 2 additives together. UCS
can reach the most outstanding value when RHA is around 25%, lime is approximately 8-10% or
when cement is around 10%. According to (Basha et al., 2005), when the natural soil was mixed
with RHA 20% and cement 4%, the UCS was 11-fold improved in comparison to the natural
soil’s (0.1MPa).

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This the table of CBR test.

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CBR is also in strength category as UCS. The best contents are RHA 25% and lime 8-
10% or cement 10%

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According to literature UCS and CBR, the significant improvement can be seen in the
first two months of curing., which are 28 and 56 days, are the main periods of strength gain of
RHA-activator mixtures. some of authors did their study with 1, 3, and 7 days curing. The results
showed that RHA-lime mixtures did not improve much. The results lead to a conclusion that mix
designs were not able to gain much strength at the short time of curing (3days). However, the
authors mentioned that 28 days was the significant time when samples showed noticeable
strength improvement. Base on the literature review, UCS results at 28 days are basic data for
other curing periods and CBR tests in this experimental research.

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In order to obtain a good pavement which ensures safe and effective transportation of
people and goods, materials that each layer of the pavement made of must fulfill requirements of
a specific standard. The first table show the general rating or quality of CBR of natural material
should match I order to be used as layer material. According to Department of highways
Thailand, the natural soil must have at least 25% CBR value to be subbase material but at least
80% CBR to be base material.

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For cemented soil, department of highways Thailand requires strength in UCS index. To
be subgrade material, cemented soil needs at least 294 kPa UCS value. In order to be subbase
material, it requires at least 689 kPa while cemented soil must have at least 1724 kPa to be base
material. So natural Bangkok clay cannot even be used as subgrade material.

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Now let’s move to research procedure and methodology.

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To explain the research procedure in short, Bangkok clay, rice husk ash and quicklime
are mixed together to create samples then we perform tests on them. After getting results, we get
to evaluate whether they are suitable to be materials for road construction or not. Plus, we also
do cost estimation in order to see how much price is reduced along with suitable applications of
Bangkok clay stabilization.

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This is the flow chart of the experiment. Start with compaction tests, we get the optimum
condition which is significant in making samples. With the optimum condition, we make UCS
samples with dimension of 69.2mm in diameter and 150mm in height. We use UCS results at 28
days as the initial results to make other UCS samples of 7 and 56 days and soaked and unsoaked
CBR samples of 7, and 28 days

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This is the experimental procedure in form of pictures.

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The table here show labels of mix design and their replicated samples amount at each
curing period. I’d like to tell the label of mix design indicates material proportion in mix design.
For instant, BKKC80RHA20L8 means that mix design is made of Bangkok clay replaced by
20% RHA then added 8% lime. For UCS samples, 3 replicated samples were made for each mix
design. CBR samples were tested on both sides. There were totally 102 UCS samples and 44
CBR samples.

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This table contains information of materials’ quantity that each mix design requires. In
total, we need approximate amount of dry Bangkok clay 165kg, RHA 40 kg and lime 15 kg.

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Here it is the information of each raw material. Bangkok clay was taken from a
construction site next to the mall Ngam Vongwan in Nothaburi province. Rice hush ask was
bought from a small brick factory in Ang Thong province. For quicklime, it was purchased from
Golden Lime Public Company Limited in Saraburi province.

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Now let’s take a look at results and achievement part. Tests were performed on each raw
material to see their engineering and chemical properties. Results are similar to results of
published works from various authors. For Bangkok clay, it naturally contains water 77%. The
black- grey clay shows its plastic and liquid behavior at 26 and 66% of moisture respectively.
Sieve analysis shows that 56% of Bangkok clay particles are clay particles. EDXRF result shows
that Bangkok clay is mainly composed of SiO2, Al2O3 and Fe2O3. The scanning electron
microscope (SEM) image of natural BKK clay shows that its particles have flaky structure.

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Unlike Bangkok clay, rice husk ash does not have plastic nor liquid behavior. The grey
material contains moisture about 3%. As the chemical test result shows, it can be said that rice
husk ash is solely rich in silica. Sieve analysis reveals that dominant RHA’s particles range from
0.3 to 0.85mm in size. 94.54% of its particles is sand-sized. RHA’s particles have spongy
morphology based on its SEM image. The spongy particles make rice husk ash water-absorbable.
Regarding chemical property, since percent of SiO2 +Al2O3+ Fe2O3 > 70, this ash material is
categorized as calcined (heated) natural pozzolan Class N according to ASTM C618.

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XRF results indicates that quicklime is rich in calcium oxide which is the composition
needed in this chemical stabilization.

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Standard proctor compaction tests were carried out in accordance with ASTM D698.
Every mixture was shaken in plastic bag in order to make a thoroughly mixed blend as seen in
the picture. Mixing water, soil, RHA, and lime blends were immediately compacted in a mold
into 3 layers by 25 blows of rammer per layer.

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Now we are about to take a look at compaction test’s results. These are compaction
curves. As can be seen, compaction curves move downward and to the right side as the amount
of rice husk ash increases.

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In general, maximum dry density reduces with increment in amount of RHA and lime.
Replacing the soil by sole RHA already reduces MDD. However, the addition of lime makes
MDD even drop more.

If we look at another graph, it can be noticed that OMC increases with increment in
additives’ amount. It shows that the more amount of stabilizer’s is used, the more quantity of
water is required in order to achieve maximum dry density. The increment of OMC can be
explained as RHA particles have spongy structure which allow themselves to absorb water. Plus,
quicklime addition on every RHA-soil mixture furthermore raises OMC’s value. The hydration
reaction of quicklime makes mixtures requires water even more.

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The optimum moisture content (OMC), which had been determined by compaction tests,
was used in UCS samples preparation. The BKK clay-RHA-Lime mixtures were compacted in
and consequently extruded from PVC pipes. The blends were compacted in pipes into 3 layers by
15 drops of rammer (the same rammer in compaction tests) which produced the exact
compaction energy resulted by standard compaction tests. Samples were sealed by plastic wrap
and left to cure in ambient temperatures 30±2°C. Once samples reached their age, they were
tested. It’s to notice that strength development index (SDI) is the ratio showing the mix design’s
strength changes in comparison to the UCS of raw BKK clay sample. SDI can be determined by
dividing the difference between mix design’s UCS value and raw Bangkok clay’s by raw
Bangkok clay’s.

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Now we are looking at UCS results at 28 days. It can be seen the stabilized mix designs
have higher strength than the natural Bangkok clay. It is also noticed that stabilized soil is more
brutal in comparison to the natural one which means it has less axial deformation. Strength
Development Index is showed by these column bars. From the column graph, strongest mix
designs were chosen to make UCS samples of 7 and 56 days and soaked and unsoaked CBR
samples of 7 and 28 days.

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Here UCS stress-strain curves at 7 and 56 days. It also can be seen that the axial strain of
stabilized soil is less than 2% while the natural Bangkok clay has axial strain about 6%.

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Generally, UCS values increase up to 10% of RHA. And they reduce slowly as RHA
amount is over 20%. At early age of curing which is 7 days, mix designs show similar strength
development rate of which SDIs can be calculated as more than 2. At 56 days of curing, the
highest values of UCS is 1558.10 kPa which can be seen in the mix design containing 20% RHA
added 8% lime. The mix design with 10% RHA added 12% lime shows almost the same value of
UCS which is 1555.44 kPa. When BKK clay is stabilized by 20% RHA added 12% lime, it
shows an approximate UCS value of 1465.04 kPa which is similar to the mix design of BKK
clay stabilized by 10% RHA added 12% lime while containing greater quantity of RHA.
However, the sample containing 50% RHA added 12% lime is the mix design with highest
strength development rate during the additional 28 days of curing.

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As XRF results shows, the CaO content of RHA is negligible. The product CaO-water
reaction is Ca(OH)2. This product will react with silica in RHA and silica and alumina in the soil
to create C-S-H (calcium silicate hydrate) gel and C-A-H (calcium aluminate hydrate) gel that
bind soil particles together. The C-S-H and C-A-H producing reactions and compaction effort
result in strength improvement. Here is the comparison between SEM image of natural Bangkok
clay and stabilized mixture after 28 days. Chemical reaction and compaction effort made
particles’ surface rougher denser in comparison to the natural Bangkok clay’s particles.

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This is the process of unsoaked and soaked CBR test.

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Now we are about to look at another test result which is CBR result. This shows us how
CBR can be determined. The CBR value can be calculated by dividing stresses by their standard
value and multiplying by 100. The stresses that result in 2.54 and 5.08 mm penetration of
standard crushed rock are 6.9 and 10.3 MPa, respectively.

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The unsoaked CBR value of natural Bangkok clay is 16% while its CBR value drops
dramatically to 1.32% when the clay sample is merged in water for 7 days. The unsoaked CBR
values shows satisfying results. After 28 days of curing, all mix designs have CBR value more
than 80 percent. For soaked CBR test, samples were soaked in water for 7 days before being
performed the test. Soaking action means to stimulate the intense action of rainfall during rainy
season. Soaked CBR value gives indication of tested materials in worse condition which is that
materials are saturated by water for a long period in which materials normally get worsened in
strength. It can be seen that soaking stabilized samples does not have any negative effects but
would have positive one on CBR. The soaked stabilized mix designs have higher CBR value in
comparison to unsoaked ones. The higher CBR values would be resulted by the progressive
chemical reaction and the soaking action. The favorable effect of soaking could be explained in
the same case of curing concrete samples in which they are soaked in a water tank or put in a
humid room. The percent swell of BKK clay is 6.93% while all stabilized mix designs do not
have the percent swell more than 0.04% as can be seen in the table. The high value of the percent
swell is also a weakness of BKK clay which is the main concern in road construction.

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Construction cost normally comprises material cost, labor cost, engine cost (either own
engines or rental ones), and consumable cost. Therefore, there are several factors to be taken into
account in order to obtain a construction cost. Comparative material cost estimation and strength
column bars above would partially give an indication of financially and engineering effective
proportions of materials to constructors. However, project size, materials price fluctuation,
political situation, insufficient time for an estimate, soil and rock suitability, soil and rock drill
ability, and terrain condition have impacts on cost deviation in constructions such as road
construction. Regardless of materials price fluctuation, the material cost of stabilization of a 1
km layer of 20 m wide and 0.2 m thick subgrade is calculated nominally with RHA’s price of 1.3
THB/kg, quicklime’s price of 18 THB/kg, subbase’s price of 0.6 THB/kg, and the untreated
soil’s price of 0.45 THB/kg of dry mass. The calculation below is done by assuming the traffic of
a six-lane highway road having single unit truck (vehicles tonnages 8) count of 2,200(T f =0.319)

and multiple unit truck of 1,870 (Tf =1.7) passing per day with annual growth rate of 6%. The

ADT (average daily traffic) is 10,000. With assumption of 20-year design life (based on

AASHTO standard), ESAL (equivalent single axle load) total equals 20.84 ×106 .

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As can be seen the thickness of subbase reduces as RHA and lime are used together to
stabilize the subgrade which is BKK clay. As the strength results show above, RHA alone did
not make any improvement to BKK clay. Thus, it can be concluded that the sole utilization of
RHA is not suitable for stabilizing BKK clay.

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Figure shows column bars of material cost estimation in million THB. The optimum way
to stabilize BKK clay to use as a subgrade material is to use 10% RHA (as replacement) and 4%
lime which costs approximately 9.97 million THB. The similar cost can be seen in mix design
using 30% RHA added 8% lime and mix design with 20% RHA and 8% lime which cost 10.35
and 10.45 million THB, respectively. The conventional way to stabilize clay, using solely lime,
would cost 11.36 million THB which can be seen in mix design stabilized by 4% lime. Thus, in
every 1 km of road construction, there would be a saving of 12.24% (1.39 million THB).
Strength column bars and material cost column bars would allow constructors to come to a
decision of stabilization proportions which fulfill either engineering and financial requirements.

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Now let’s see achievements regarding graduation requirements. So far, a proceeding

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Plus, an accepted paper which will be published in JESTEC- an international journal.

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Finally, we can conclude that stabilization of Bangkok clay by being replaced by RHA
with the addition of lime increases OMC but reduces MDD.

Concerning UCS, using RHA with quicklime gives improvement in compressive strength
to BKK clay. Stabilizing BKK clay with 20% RHA and 8% quicklime results in the strongest
mix design in terms of UCS and it’s 5 times better than the natural Bangkok clay. Another thing
is that UCS is improved in function of curing time.

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Relevant to CBR, using RHA and lime in Bangkok clay stabilization provides material
better in bearing capacity. Mix design containing 50% of RHA and 12% of lime is the optimum
mix design since it is the lightest mix design requires less amount of soil yet shows
approximately better strength as other mix designs.

In terms cost, since the thickness of subbase layer reduces, the cost is cut down as well.
In every 1 km of road construction, there would be a saving of 12.24% (1.39 million THB).

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Finally, with research result and the accordance with requirement of department of
highways Thailand, after being stabilized, Bangkok clay cold be used as filler material for
projects requiring light soil structure, and would be used as subgrade and subbase materials. In
addition, it would possibly be able to be used as base materials if modified compaction effort
was used.

For further research, it is recommended to do studies on

Triaxial compression for obtaining resilient modulus

Longer curing period

Tensile testing

Soil aggregate stability testing

Durability tests (Weight loss, residual strength, stripping)

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This is end of my presentation. I honestly appreciate your attentive listening.