The steady expansion of coal-based thermal power plants in both numbers and capacity in India has resulted in an enormous production of coal ash (fly ash and bottom ash). About 70%–80% of the coal ash is currently recycled/utilized into various products like PPC cement, brick, road layer (subgrade & subbase), mine filling, concrete, reclamation of the low-lying area, etc. The remaining fly ash and bottom ash are disposed of and stored in the ash pond. During heavy rainfall, the failure rate of ash dykes is much higher than that of embankments and dams. One of the reasons for these failures is the poor characterization of the coal ash material. Among designers, a presumption is strongly prevailing that coal ash behaves very similarly to natural sand and silt under monotonic shearing. However, this presumption doesn’t hold well as various studies suggest that the shape of coal ash particles is very different from that of sand/silt. Furthermore, the void ratio of coal ash is much higher than that of sand, and coal ash possesses significant particle crushing even at low confining pressure. The current research focuses on the change in strength parameters of bottom ash in direct shear tests. It is observed that unlike sand the angle of internal friction of coal ash material does not possess a unique strength parameter rather it is a function of normal stress. The angle of internal friction is not constant, it is reduced with an increase in normal stress; this indicates a significant amount of particle breakage occurred during shearing. This research further investigates the stability of an ash pond dyke using the finite element package PLAXIS 2D, considering the angle of internal friction is a function of normal stress.