Cohesive Soil Stabilized Using Sewage Sludge Ash/Cement and Nano Aluminum Oxide

Abstract

In order to improve soft soil strength, a mixture of incinerated sewage sludge ash (SSA) and cement was applied as a soil stabilizer. The intended mix ratio for SSA and cement was 3:1. A-6 clay was selected as the untreated soil. In this study, 15% of clay soil was replaced by SSA/cement to produce the treated soil specimens. Then, four different volumes, namely 0, 1, 2, and 3%, of nano-Al2O3 were mixed with the treated soil as an additive. Tests such as compaction, pH values, Atterberg limits, unconfined compressive strength (UCS), swell potential, California bearing ratio (CBR), and permeability were performed. The results indicate that both UCSs and CBR values of untreated soil were greatly improved by the use of 15% SSA/cement. Moreover, a 1% addition of nano-Al2O3 enhanced the treated soil in terms of both UCS and CBR values. Furthermore, the swell potential was effectively reduced by the use of 15% SSA/cement as compared with untreated soil and the 1% nano-Al2O3 additive fraction offered the best performance. From this study, we conclude that 15% of SSA/cement replacement could effectively stabilize A-6 clay soil, and 1% of nano-Al2O3 additive may be the optimum amount to add to the soil.