Bearing capacity of pond ash overlain by sand bed

Abstract

In the recent past large amount of Pond ash are generated by the thermal power plants. It is a major reason of concern for the people living around the power plants. Statistical observation shows that the current rate of deposition of Pond ash in India has reached 170 million tons/annum. About 90,000 acres of precious cultivable land is used for the storage of abandoned ash. But the current rate of utilization of ash is only about 35-40%.The unused ash leads to an increasing ponding area for storing of ash and related environmental problems for the people who live around the power plants. Besides this, over the last few years, due to development the construction of skyscrapers, highways and roads has taken a boost. This requires a large amount of natural soil and aggregates to excavated or to be deposited. Hence this is a both environmental and economic issue. These are some issues now-a-days which motivates in development of alternative methods to overcome those environmental and also the economic issues which leads to the reuse of suitable industrial waste products which can fix those issues and also fulfill the specifications. During this work, the effect of moisture content, degree of compaction, dry densities etc. on various geotechnical properties of pond ash are studied. Specific gravity test, grain size distribution test by mechanical sieve analysis etc. are performed to obtain some physical properties of the pond ash. A series of tests such as light compaction as well as heavy compaction test, Direct shear test, Footing load test are done to estimate the strength characteristics of suitably compacted pond ash. The footing load test of saturated pond ash sample over lain by some thickness of sand bed is done and increase in the strength of pond ash is observed. These results will be very much helpful for the successful application of pond ash in different fields as well as the disposal of pond ash in an ecofriendly manner.