A STUDY ON THE STRENGTH ENHANCEMENT OF WEAK LATERITE SOIL USING METAKAOLIN AND POFA

Laterite is a soil and rock type rich in iron and aluminum, and is commonly considered to have formed in hot and wet tropical areas. Southern region of India forms a major tropical part, where lateritic soils are used as a road making material and they form the sub-grade of most tropical roads as either natural or formed. Most tropical laterite soils are composed predominantly of kaolinite clay mineral and in some cases they contain swelling clay mineral, montmorillonite. When lateritic soils contain swelling clay mineral type, they are known as problematic lateritic soils. The reason being they have reputation of being problematic in road construction. Numerous research works have been carried out on stabilization of laterites to make them suitable especially as a material for road construction. It is important to use innovative techniques by utilizing local available industrial waste material for the modification and stabilization of deficient soil. In the process of soil stabilization and modification, emphasis is given for maximum utilization of local material so that cost of construction may be minimized to the minimum extent. Palm Oil Fuel Ash (POFA) is a local agricultural waste material from Palm Oil Industry and and Metakaolin (MK) which is a pozzolanic material and is obtained by calcination of Kaolinite clay at temperatures from 700°C to 800°C. This paper presents the laboratory study carried out on the combined influence of Palm Oil Fuel Ash (POFA) and Metakaolin (MK) in improving the geotechnical properties of lateritic soil. To understand the performance of stabilized soil, its properties like Atterberg’s Limits, Compaction Parameters, Swell Parameters and Penetration Parameters were studied.