Shear Strength Characteristics of Pond Ash Reinforced with Polymeric and Natural Fiber Geosynthetic

In the field of geotechnical engineering, reinforced pond ash is an alternative building material that has the potential to be utilized. The effects of using woven coir geotextile and polymeric geogrid for pond ash reinforcement were studied through experimental investigations. A triaxial test was performed on reinforced the pond ash. Two different types of geotextiles such as polymeric geogrid (rigid biaxial and flexible biaxial), two types of woven coir geotextile (different mass per unit area), and two types of pond ash (coarse and fine) were considered. The geotextile reinforcements were placed in the triaxial samples in various combinations in one, two, and three layers. The effects of the type of geotextile, position, and number of geotextile layers on the strength of pond ash were investigated. Both unreinforced and reinforced pond ash were subjected to a series of unconsolidated undrained (UU) triaxial tests to examine the shear strength response. The present research examines how the shear strength response of pond ash is affected by confining pressure (σ3), the number of geotextile layers (N), and the types of geotextiles used. To maintain constant maximum dry density throughout the layers, varying compaction energies were applied to different layers. The findings show that with improvement in confining pressure and number of layers, the shear strength of pond ash i.e., value of cohesion (c), angle of shearing resistance (φ), and strength ratio enhanced significantly.