Proceedings of Indian Geotechnical Conference

December 22-24,2013, Roorkee

EFFECT OF COIR WASTE ON THE GEOTECHNICAL PROPERTIES OF

FLYASH

P.S.Deepak, Asst. Professor, IES College of Engineering, Chitilappilly, Thrissur,

K.Balan, Professor, Dept. of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram,
K.Niranjana, Post graduate student, IES College of Engineering, Chitilappilly, Thrissur ,

ABSTRACT: For the development of any country, a satisfactory mode of transport and communication is
indispensable. This can be achieved through an economically viable transportation system. The quality of subgrade
governs the pavement design. Practically it is not possible to have good subgrade always. During the last few
decades research has been conducted on various aspects of low volume roads resulting in innovative and
unconventional approaches of road construction. . Flyash is an important industrial by-product that comes from the
combustion of coal. In our country, only a small percentage is used for the construction of technical projects, while
the rest is stockpiled. Coir waste is a by-product left after extracting fiber from coconut husks. Being dumped in
bulk it causes environmental hazards and other menace. The present investigation assesses the usefulness of coir
waste as an admixture in flyash, especially for construction of rural roads.

INTRODUCTION fraction[1]. Various studies have indicated that the

The transportation infrastructure system is one of
the main investments every modern society must
make for their economic and social development.
In India, a special drive has been taken at the
beginning of the new millennium to improve the
road and highway systems in the country. It is
well-known that naturally occurring aggregates
used for road construction are depleting rapidly.
They are extracted from natural rocks and possess
certain engineering properties. Quite often these
materials are not available locally in sufficient
quantities and are to be brought from far off places
which increases the transportation cost. It increases
the project cost. During the last few decades
research has been conducted on various aspects of
low volume roads resulting in innovative and
unconventional approaches of road construction.
Fly ash management causes serious environmental
problem for developing countries and its proper
utilization with a missionary zeal is required to
save the mother earth on many counts The civil
engineering use of flyash is already tried mainly in
highways, embankments but with limitations.
Specific gravity is one of the important physical
properties needed for the use of coal ashes for
geotechnical and other applications[4]. Coal ashes
are predominantly silt sized with some sand-size
mixing of polypropylene fiber can increase the
strength of soils to make them suitable for subbase
construction. It is true for fly ash also [5].CBR
value of flyash increases on adding fibers. Thus
thickness of the pavement could be considerably
reduced upon addition of fibers and fly ash [6].
Pith is another waste by-product left after
extracting fiber from coconut husks. . Particle size
of pith varied between 0.098 to 0.925mm [2]. More
over coir pith being dumped in bulk causes
environmental hazards and other menace.
The present investigation leads to study if two
waste materials mixed together can be used in rural
road construction as sub-grade/sub-base material.
No major studies are conducted on the influence of
the coir waste in the engineering behavior of
flyash. The main objective of the present
investigation is to assess the usefulness of coir
waste as an admixture in flyash, especially for
pavement construction. Hence the compaction
characteristics and CBR values of flyash mixed
with different percentage of coir waste has been
studied.

Page 1 of 5
P.S.Deepak, K.Balan, & K.Niranjana

EXPERIMENTAL PROGRAMME above mentioned studies for the base soil mix in
Flyash used for the study was collected from this study. Short fibers are added in different
Hindusthan Newsprint kottayam,Kerala. Coir percentages to the above mentioned mix and
waste was collected from a defibering unit in compaction characteristics and CBR values were
Kerala. found out.
The physical properties of coir flyash and coir
waste are shown in table 1 and table 2 respectively. Table 2 Properties of coir waste
The coir waste used in this study was in a soaked Properties of Coir Values
state and it was then sun dried to reduce the water Waste
content to 0%. The coir pith was obtained by
Specific gravity 0.38
sieving the coir waste through 4.75 mm sieve, by
this process medium to large fibres along with Coefficient of
1.17
gravel sized coir waste are all removed. The sieved curvature
pith consisted of baby fibres which were difficult Coefficient of
4.28
to separate manually. The coir pith was brown in uniformity
colour and was light in weight. It has a property of
imbibing water and swells 600 times more than its Effective size (mm) 0.5
weight. The portion of coir waste retained on Percentage Gravel
4.75mm sieve is short fiber [3]. 6
sized particles (%)
Percentage sand sized
Table 1 Properties of flyash 93
particles (%)
Description Values Percentage fine sized 1
particles (%)
.
Specific gravity (G) 2.14 Chemical properties of flyash were determined
from Center for earth science studies Trivandrum
Liquid limit (%) 48 and the results are given in table 3.
Plastic limit (%) Non plastic
Table 3 Chemical properties of flyash
Shrinkage limit (%) Not obtained Components Class F fly ash (%)
Maximum dry 11.6 SiO2 49.410
3 TiO2 1.420
density (kN/m )
Al2O3 23.670
Optimum moisture 31.6 MnO 0.069
content (%) Fe2O3 6.885
Unsoaked CBR (%) 3 MgO 2.803
Na2O 0.426
Soaked CBR (%) 0.56 K2O 0.864
The samples were prepared by mixing coir pith SO3 0.350
with flyash in 0%, 0.5%, 0.75%, 1%, 1.5%, 2%, P2O5 0.367
2% 3% and 4% by weight of flyash. LOI 6.444
Standard Proctor Compaction test was conducted
for each mix to find out maximum dry density and
optimum moisture content.California Bearing
Ratio tests, both soaked and unsoaked were also
conducted.
Optimum coir pith content which gives better
compaction and CBR results was selected from the

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 Effect of coir waste on the geotechnical properties of flyash

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

Effect of coir pith on dry density and optimum
moisture content of flyash
It was observed that dry density decreases and
OMC increases with increase in coir pith content.
The variation of dry density and OMC with coir
waste content is shown in Figures 1 and 2
respectively.
Effect of coir waste on California bearing ratio
of flyash
The variation of unsoaked and soaked CBR value
with increase in coir pith content of flyash is
shown in Figures 3 and 4 respectively. It is seen
that there is an increase in CBR value at lower pith
content and about 2% decrease in CBR value
thereafter.
10

9
12.0
MAXIMUM DRY DENSITY (kN/m )
3

UNSOAKED CBR(%)
11.5
7

11.0 6

10.5 5

4
10.0
3
9.5
2
0 1 2 3 4
0 1 2 3 4
PERCENTAGE PITH(%)
PERCENTAGE PITH(%)

Fig. 1 Variation in Maximum dry density with Fig. 3 Variation in unsoaked CBR with addition of
addition of pith pith
In all cases, optimum moisture content of fly ash
increases because of the absorption of water by
coir pith. The decrease in dry density can be
attributed to the low density of coir pith. 0.72

0.70
OPTIMUM MOISTURE CONTENT(%)

44 0.68
SOAKED CBR(%)

42 0.66

40 0.64

38 0.62

36 0.60

34
0.58

0.56
32
0.54
30
0 1 2 3 4 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4 1.6

PERCENTAGE PITH(%) PERCENTAGE PITH(%)

Fig. 2 Variation in optimum moisture content with Fig. 4 Variation in soaked CBR with addition of
addition of pith pith

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P.S.Deepak, K.Balan, & K.Niranjana

In all cases the CBR value of flyash-pith
combination was higher than that of flyash.
With an increase in the pith content there are
sufficient pith particles to attain cohesive attraction
between the pith particles and also the presence of
baby fibers (the amount of which is higher in
higher grams of pith) provides reinforcement
effect. The decrease in CBR value can be due to
From fig.5 it is clear that as the percentage of short
fiber increases, there is decrease in dry density and
the maximum decrease is by 7%. The decrease in
dry density on addition of short fiber can be
attributed to the low density of fibre.
46.5

OPTIMUM MOISTURE CONTENT(%)

the cushioning effect of pith and the higher
46.0
replacement of flyash by pith.
The optimum value of pith content in flyash is 45.5
found to be 0.75% and the corresponding 45.0
un-soaked and soaked CBR values are 9.3% and
44.5
0.7% respectively.
44.0

Effect of short fibers on MDD and OMC of 43.5

optimum flyash-pith combination.
43.0
Short fibers are the portions retained while sieving
coir waste on 4.75mm sieve. To understand the 42.5
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0
effect of short fibers on the compaction
PERCENTAGE SHORT FIBER(%)
characteristics of fly ash coir pith mix, short fibers
were added in different percentages. Optimum coir Fig.6 Variation in MDD with the addition of short
pith content which gives better compaction and fiber
CBR results was selected from the above
mentioned studies for the base soil mix in this From figure 6 it is clear that the optimum moisture
study. Accordingly fly ash with 0.75% coir pith content of flyash-pith combination increases when
was selected as the base soil mix and to which short fibers are added. There was about 2%
short fiber was added at varying percentages. increase in moisture content on adding short fibers.
The variation in maximum dry density and This may be attributed to the absorption of water
optimum moisture content with the addition of by short fibers.
short fibers are shown in figure 5 and 6
respectively.

10.8 9.5
MAXIMUM DRY DENSITY(kN/m )
3

10.7
9.0
10.6
UNSOAKED CBR(%)

8.5
10.5
8.0
10.4
7.5
10.3
7.0
10.2

10.1
6.5

10.0 6.0

9.9 5.5
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0
PERCENTAGE SHORT FIBER(%) PERCENTAGE SHORT FIBER(%)

Fig.5 Variation in MDD with the addition of short Fig.7 Variation in unsoaked CBR with the addition
fiber of short fibers

Page 4 of 5

Effect of short fibres on CBR values optimum
flyash-pith mixture
When short fibers were added, there was a
decrease in unsoaked CBR values of flyash pith
mixture. The decrease was within 1%-3%.figure 7
and 8 shows the variation in unsoaked and soaked
CBR values respectively with the addition of short
fibers.
But there is an increase in the values of soaked
CBR with the addition of short fibers as shown in
figure 8.
In soaked CBR test the wetted fibers provide
reinforcement to the fly ash pith mix by its tensile
strength, but in unsoaked CBR test, since proper
bond in not developed between the fibres and
flyash pith mix fibres fail to provide reinforcement
to the specimen.
1.6
1.4
SOAKED CBR (%)
1.2
1.0
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0
PERCENTAGE SHORT FIBER(%)
Fig. 8 Variation in soaked CBR with the addition
of short fibers
CONCLUSIONS
Two waste materials, coir pith at varying
percentage were added to fly ash in order to assess
the improvement in geotechnical properties. Coir
pith sieved through 4.75 mm sieve to separate short
fibres of coir and coir pith with baby fibre.
Effect of coir waste on the geotechnical properties of flyash
When coir pith with baby fibre is added to fly ash,
it has been found that 0.75% of coir pith will give
good compaction parameters and CBR values.
However soaked CBR values of such combination
is less than 1%. When pith was added to fly ash a
maximum unsoaked CBR of 9.3% was obtained at
0.75% pith
When short fibers were added to optimum fly ash-
pith combination, at 3% short fiber a maximum
unsoaked CBR value of 8% was obtained. Hence
both the above combinations can be considered
ideal for subgrade in rural roads.
It is clear from the results of soaked CBR tests that
the flyah-pith combination as well as flyash-pith-
short fiber combination cannot with stand adverse
situations like heavy rainfall. So alternate ground
improvement techniques must be adopted to
improve the soaked CBR value of mixture and
thereby it can be used in the construction of rural
roads.
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3. Nisha, K. K, Thushara, T., Balan, K., and
Jayasree, P.K. (2013). Studies on the
2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0
engineering behavior of coir waste mixed soil.
Geosynthetics, Long Beach, California, 163-
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Journal of Transportation Engineering.,
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