Improvement of Unconfined Compressive Strength of Natural Organic Soil

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to investigate the possible improvement of unconfined compressive strength of natural organic soil by using cement dust and fly ash. Natural organic soil with different percentage of organic content (0, 5, 10.15 and 20 %) is used. Three different percentages of cement dust and fly ash (3, 6 and 9 %) are used to improve the strength characteristics of the organic soil. The effect of curing time is investigates. The result show that unconfined compressive strength of organic soil decreased with increasing the organic content. The addition of cement dust increased the unconfined compressive strength for all percentage of organic content, while the addition of fly ash improved the strength characteristics of organic soil for samples with organic content greater than 10 %.

Keywords: organic content, unconfined compressive strength, cement dust, fly ash.