Bone Ash Impact on Soil Shear Strength

Authors: G. M. Ayininuola, A. O. Sogunro

Abstract:

Most failures of soil have been attributed to poor shear strength. Consequently, the present paper investigated the suitability of cattle bone ash as a possible additive to improve the shear strength of soils. Four soil samples were collected and stabilized with prepared bone ash in proportions of 3%, 5%, 7%, 10%, 15% and 20% by dry weight. Chemical analyses of the bone ash; followed by classification, compaction, and triaxial shear tests of the treated soil samples were conducted. Results obtained showed that bone ash contained high proportion of calcium oxide and phosphate. Addition of bone ash to soil samples led to increase in soil shear strengths within the range of 22.40% to 105.18% over the strengths of the respective control tests. Conversely, all samples attained maximum shear strengths at 7% bone ash stabilization. The use of bone ash as an additive will therefore improve the shear strength of soils; however, using bone ash quantities in excess of 7% may not yield ample results.

Keywords: Bone ash, Shear strength, Stabilization, Soil.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI): doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1336276

References:

[1] R. L. Handy, The day the house fell, New York: ASCE Press, 1995
[2] BS 1377, Methods of test for Soils for civil engineering purposes, UK: British Standards, 1998.
[3] R. Holtz and W. Kovacs, An Introduction to geotechnical engineering, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1981.
[4] J. P. Milburn and R. L. Parsons, Performance of soil stabilization agents, Report No. K-TRAN: KU-01-8 for Kansas Department of Transportation, 2004.
[5] G.P. Raymond and J. R. Davies, "Triaxial tests on dolomite railroad ballast”, Journal of Geotechnical Engineering, ASCE, vol. 104, (GT6), pp. 737–751, 1978.
[6] R. B. Hanson and T. H. Thornburn, Foundation engineering, New York: John Wiley and sons, 1974.
[7] A.M. King’ori, "A review of the uses of poultry eggshells and shell membranes”, International Journal of Poultry Science, vol. 10, pp. 908-912, 2011.
[8] Wikipedia, Bone China, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bone_china, 2012.
[9] R. Stulz and K. Mukerji, Appropriate building materials: a catalogue of potential solution, Fayetteville, Skat, 1988.
[10] T. Ifka, M. T. Palou and Z. Bazelova, Influence of CaO and P2O5 of bone ash upon the reactivity and the burnability of cement raw mixtures, Slovak University, 2011.
[11] G. Sarkar, R. Islam and M. Alamgir, "Interpretation of rice husk ash on geotechnical properties of cohesive soil,” Global Journal of Researches in Engineering, Civil and Structural Engineering, vol. 12, Issue 2, pp. 1 – 8, 2012.
[12] O. O. Amu, N. T. Basiru and A. A. Coker, "Effects of forage ash as stabilizing agent in lateritic soil for road,” Innovations in Science and Engineering, pp. 1-8., 2011.
[13] F. Sariosseiri, and B. Muhunthan, "Geotechnical properties of Palouse loess modified with cement kiln dust and Portland cement”. Geocongress, 2008, pp. 92 – 99.
[14] M. Alhassan, "Potentials of rice husk ash for soil stabilization,” Australian Journal of Technology, vol. 1, pp. 246-250, 2008.