International Journal of Pavement Engineering

ISSN: 1029-8436 (Print) 1477-268X (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/gpav20

Static and cyclic properties of clay subgrade

stabilised with rice husk ash and Portland slag
cement

Argaw Asha Ashango & Nihar Ranjan Patra

To cite this article: Argaw Asha Ashango & Nihar Ranjan Patra (2014) Static and cyclic properties
of clay subgrade stabilised with rice husk ash and Portland slag cement, International Journal of
Pavement Engineering, 15:10, 906-916, DOI: 10.1080/10298436.2014.893323

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10298436.2014.893323

Published online: 07 Mar 2014.

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International Journal of Pavement Engineering, 2014
Vol. 15, No. 10, 906–916, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10298436.2014.893323

Static and cyclic properties of clay subgrade stabilised with rice husk ash
and Portland slag cement
Argaw Asha Ashango1 and Nihar Ranjan Patra*
Geotechnical Engineering Division, Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Kanpur, Kanpur 208016, India
(Received 3 July 2013; accepted 19 January 2014)

In the present study, clay soil collected from new Banda, Uttar Pradesh, India has been treated with rice husk ash (RHA)
and Portland slag cement (PSC). Based on unconfined compressive strength test results, the optimum mix obtained is of
82.5%Soil þ 7.5%PSC þ 10%RHA. The increase in strength of the optimum mix is about 29.8%, 37.2% and 48.55%
for a curing period of 7, 14 and 30 days, respectively. The soaked California bearing ratio (CBR) test gives about
91.75% higher values as compared to unsoaked CBR test for a curing period of 30 days. Strain-controlled cyclic
triaxial tests were conducted to study the variation of degradation index, shear modulus and damping ratio of the
optimum mix with number of cycles for strain amplitudes of 0.4%, 0.6%, 0.8% and 1% and for frequencies of 0.2 and
1 Hz at an effective confining pressure of 100 kPa. It is observed that the degradation index decreases at a fast rate for
the first 25 – 50 cycles. From the study, it is concluded that the aforementioned mix may be suitable for pavement
subgrade material.
Keywords: clay subgrade; rice husk ash; Portland slag cement; California bearing ratio; cyclic tests; degradation index

List of notations
1. Introduction
Expansive soils are found in the arid and semi-arid regions
AASHTO: American Association of State Highway and and formed due to poor drainage and hot climatic
Transportation Officials condition, and its colour varies from grey to deep black
ASTM: American Society for Testing and Materials and rarely reddish or yellowish and the thickness also
ASTM D: American Society for Testing and Materials varies from 30 cm to 15 m (Rao 2000). Twenty percent of
Designation the total land in India is covered by expansive soils and
CAH: calcium aluminates hydrate generally it is called black cotton soil (Rao 2000). In
CBR: California bearing ratio addition to India, this black cotton soil is available in many
CH: highly expansive clay soil parts of the world such as Africa, Australia, Ethiopia,
CSH: calcium silicate hydrate Israel, Jordan, the USA, and so on (Rao 2000). The annual
D: damping ratio damage to civil engineering structure due to this soil are
G: shear modulus estimated to be around billion dollars in the world and
Hz: Hertz particularly 1 billion dollars in the USA and 150 million
IS: Indian Standard dollars in the UK (Gourley et al. 1993, Sabat and
JCPDs: Joint Committee on Powder Diffraction Nanda 2011).
Standards Rice husk ash (RHA) is a waste material obtained from
MDD: maximum dry density controlled burning of rice husks at a temperature of 6008C
OMC: optimum moisture content (Della et al. 2002) and 20% of rice husk are ash. RHA is
PSC: Portland slag cement classified as a pozzolanic material [American Society for
RHA: rice husk ash Testing Materials (ASTM) C618 2012a], which is
UCS: unconfined compressive strength siliceous and aluminous by composition. This material is
UCSC: Unified Soil Classification System in bulk amount in major rice producing countries such as
XRD: X-ray diffraction India and China (Ramakrishna and Pradeep 2008) and its
XRF: X-ray fluorescence fineness and low density make it to fly over the air, which
d: degradation index contributes to environmental issues and in addition to that
g: strain amplitude storage has claimed for land proclamation (Rahman 1987).

*Corresponding author. Email: nrpatra@iitk.ac.in

q 2014 Taylor & Francis
 International Journal of Pavement Engineering
Portland slag cement (PSC) is made by inter-grinding
of high quality of clinker, slag and gypsum. Clinker used
for the production of slag cement contains highly reactive
tri-calcium silicates (3CaO·SiO2) that facilitate good
reactivity and strength development in the cement.
Granulated blast furnace slag containing high glass
content (more than 90%) is obtained by rapid quenching
or chilling of molten slag generated from blast furnace
during steel making. Gypsum (CaSO4·H2O) is added to the
clinker and slag to manufacture PSC and it should be in
amounts such that the sulphur trioxide (SO3) in the cement
produced does not exceed the limit of 3%. It is a
cementitious material consisting of lime (CaO), silicon
dioxide (SiO2), aluminum oxide (Al2O3) and magnesium
oxide (MgO). The high amount of lime(CaO), 50.85%,
present in PSC makes it a suitable binding material for
mixing it with silicon dioxide (SiO2) that exist in RHA.
The PSC does not contain carbon and it does not cause
instability in the entrained air content.
Aubert et al. (2006) have reported that reusing the waste
material in environmentally friendly and economically
sustainable ways are important topics on which authorities
and researchers are working on. Apart from this, the
demand of construction material and its cost increases day
by day and this leads to scarcity of raw materials and
increase in price of energy. The improvement in strength of
the clay soil is due to the presence of cementitious materials
in soil –cement matrix (Stavridakis 2005, Kamruzzamn
et al. 2006). The cementitious materials are formed by the
reaction between hydrated lime from cement and the silica
and alumina from RHA and clay minerals and that leads to
formation of calcium silicate hydrate and calcium
aluminates hydrate (Rahman et al. 2010).
The heavy traffic loading, railway, earthquake, etc. can
affect the dynamic property of soils (Thammathiwat and
Chim-oye 2004). This dynamic property of soils such as
shear modulus and damping ratio depends on the cyclic
frequency and strain amplitude (Zhou and Gong 2001,
Jiang et al. 2010). The cyclic loading affects the
chemically mixed soils (Hoyos et al. 2004, Shafiee et al.
2004). Few cyclic triaxial test results of stabilised clay soil
have been reported by Ashango and Patra (2013). Clay soil
stabilised with RHA and PSC in terms of strength,
durability and California bearing ratio (CBR) are limited.
In the present study, black cotton clay soil collected
from new Banda, Uttar Pradesh, India has been mixed with
RHA and PSC to determine the optimum mix. The
unconfined compressive strength (UCS) of the optimum
mix has been carried out for different curing periods. The
unsoaked and soaked CBR tests have been carried out for
the mixture for different curing periods. The durability test
is carried out for the optimum mix. Strain-controlled cyclic
triaxial tests have been conducted to study the variation of
degradation index, d, shear modulus, G and damping ratio,
D of the optimum mix of soil with number of cycles for
907
different strain amplitudes of 0.4%, 0.6%, 0.8% and 1% and
effective confining pressure of 100 kPa at a frequency of 0.2
and 1 Hz. Based on static and cyclic test results on stabilised
clay, conclusions have been drawn for the material mix and
its applicability for pavement subgrade.
2. Experimental programme
The experimental programme was divided into four parts.
In the first part, the geotechnical properties of the soil, RHA
and PSC were determined. In the second part, the optimum
mix for stabilisation of the soil sample was determined. In
the third part, unsoaked and soaked CBR tests, unconfined
compression test and durability tests were carried out. In the
fourth part, cyclic tests have been conducted to determine
degradation index, shear modulus and damping ratio of the
optimum mix. The detailed experimental programme of the
present study is given in Table 1.
3. Materials
The three materials are used in this study and explained in
detail in the next section. The samples of each material are
shown in Figure 1.
3.1 Soil sample
The soil (black cotton) used in the present study was
collected from new Banda site, Uttar Pradesh, India. The
geotechnical properties of the soil are shown in Table 2,
and the particle size distribution is shown in Figure 2. The
soil was classified as highly expansive soil according to
Unified Soil Classification System and A-7-6 according to
American Association of State Highway and Transpor-
tation Officials (AASHTO) classification system. The soil
has approximately 98% particles passing U.S. No 200
sieve. The silt and clay fractions are about 52% and 46%,
respectively.
3.2 Rice husk ash
Rice husk is milled at circulating fluidised bed boiler at
4708C temperature and Lancashire boiler at 6708C and
collected from locally available resources. The chemical
analysis has shown that the RHA consists of 81.9% SiO2,
0.9% Al2O3, 0.4% Fe2O3, 0.8% CaO, 0.5% MgO,0.4%
Na2O, 1.3% K2O, 0.1% MnO2, 4% C and 4% loss of
ignition. The physical properties of RHA are shown in
Table 3.
3.3 Portland slag cement
The PSC was collected from the locally available market
(Gujarat, India). PSC is made by inter-grinding of high
quality clinker, slag and gypsum. It is a cementitious
908 A.A. Ashango and N.R. Patra

Table 1. Testing scheme and mixture design.

Materials used Static Test Cyclic test

CBR Frequency

UCS Unsoaked Soaked Durability 0.2 Hz 1 Hz

Mix proportion (%) Curing days Uncuried Curing days D/W days Strain amplitude (%) Strain amplitude (%)

Clay PSC RHA 0 7 14 30 0 7 14 30 30 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 0.4 0.6 0.8 1

100 0 0 X X
90 0 10 X X X X X X X X
92.5 2.5 5 X
87.5 2.5 10 X X X X X
82.5 2.5 15 X
77.5 2.5 20 X
90 5 5 X
85 5 10 X X X X X X
80 5 15 X
75 5 20 X
87.5 7.5 5 X
82.5 7.5 10 X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X
77.5 7.5 15 X
72.5 7.5 20 X
Note: X, test conducted; D/W, drying and wetting.

Figure 1. Clay soil, PSC and RHA used in present study.

Table 2. Geotechnical properties of the clay soil and optimum

(82.5%Soil þ 7.5%PSC þ 10%RHA) mix.

Values
Soil properties Clay Optimum mix
Grain size distribution
Gravel (. 4.75 mm) 0 0
Sand (4.75 to 0.075 mm) 2 0.7
Silt (0.075 to 0.002 mm) 52 98.05
Clay (, 0.002 mm) 46 1.25
Specific gravity 2.69 2.47
Atterberg limit
Liquid limit (%) 53 51.5
Plastic limit (%) 20 41.28
Plasticity index (%) 33 10.22
Shrinkage limit (%) 11 46.32
Proctor compaction
MDD (kN/m3) 16.12 14.79
OMC (%) 22 25.25
Compressive strength (kN/m2) 193 835
CBR (%)
Unsoaked 8.27 15.8 Figure 2. Particle size distribution of the clay soil and optimum
mix (82.5%Soil þ 7.5%PSC þ 10%RHA).
 International Journal of Pavement Engineering
Table 3. Physical properties of RHA.
Property Value
Colour Black grey
Bulk density 3.2 kN/m3
Moisture 1.6%
Specific gravity 2.308
PH 8.4
material that consists of lime (CaO), silicon dioxide
(SiO2), aluminum oxide (Al2O3) and magnesium oxide
(MgO). X-ray fluorescence was carried out by ZFX Primus
II RIGAKU machine with 36.58C internal temperature and
3 kV power for the PSC to find the oxide contents. The
chemical analysis shows that the PSC consists of 50.8%
CaO, 27.7% SiO2, 11.2% Al2O3, 2.9% Fe2O3, 2.8% SO3,
2.5% MgO, 0.6% Na2O and 0.5% K2O. The high amount
of lime (CaO) in PSC reflects it as a binder material.
4. Testing procedures
4.1 Static tests
The geotechnical laboratory tests were carried out on clay
soil for the classification of the expansive soil. The RHA
varies from 5% to 20% with increment of 5% and the PSC
varies from 2.5% to 7.5% with increment of 2.5% of dry
unit soil which were mixed thoroughly and kept for
10 min. The maximum dry density (MDD) and the
optimum moisture content (OMC) for various mixtures
were determined by standard proctor method in accord-
ance with ASTM 698. UCS test was conducted on sample
having a dimension of 38 mm diameter and 76 mm height
prepared with their respective mix of MDD and OMC in
accordance with ASTM 2166 for three samples. The
average of them was taken as the UCS value. This sample
was tested after 0, 7, 14 and 30 days of curing in a room
maintained at 90 – 100% relative humidity and temperature
of 32– 358C with a strain rate 0.625 mm/min.
Test specimens were prepared at OMC with their
respective mix for CBR test in accordance with ASTM
1883. The CBR tests were conducted for unsoaked and
soaked conditions. The sample was soaked for 4 days after
cured in a room maintained at 90 –100% relative humidity
and temperature of 32 –358C for 0, 7, 14 and 30 days.
Then, the sample was tested at a strain rate of 1.25 mm/
min. The durability test was conducted for three samples
prepared for UCS tests in two steps: wetting and drying.
In the wetting case, the samples after 7 days of curing were
immersed in water for 5 h. Then, their weight and height
were recorded. In the drying case, the samples were dried
after 5 h of immersion in water. Then, their weight and
height were measured. These samples were oven-dried for
42 h at a temperature of 808C and were cooled for 1 h.
Then their weight and height were measured. This
909
completes the wetting and drying for one cycle. The
same procedure was repeated for 12 cycles. The sample
that existed for 12 cycles was tested for UCS test in
accordance with ASTM 559.
4.2 X-ray diffraction analysis
X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis was carried out for clay
soil, RHA, optimum mix after static test and optimum mix
after cyclic test using SIETRONICS XRD SCAN
instrument. XRD patterns were obtained using a Cu, Ka
(l ¼ 1.541841 Å) with continuous scan mode over a range
of 5– 7082u with a 0.028 step and a 2 s per step count time.
The analysis was performed by comparing or matching the
Joint Committee on Powder Diffraction Standards data
and the scanned XRD data for different minerals such as
montmorillonite, kaolinite, illite, quartz, feldspar and
calcite. The minerals contents in samples of clay soil,
RHA, optimum mix after static test and optimum mix after
cyclic test are shown in Figures 3– 6, respectively.
4.3 Cyclic tests
The optimum mix samples (Soil-PSC-RHA) were
prepared having 50 mm diameter and 100 mm height
mould and compacted with 98% of MDD. Strain-
controlled cyclic triaxial test was conducted in accordance
with ASTM 3999 up to 300 number of cycles with
different strain amplitudes of g ¼ 0.4%, 0.6%, 0.8% and
1%, frequency of 0.2 and 1 Hz at an effective confine
pressure of 100 kPa.
5. Test results and discussions
5.1 XRD analysis
The XRD analyses are shown in Figures 3 – 6 for clay soil,
RHA, optimum mix after static test and optimum mix
Figure 3. XRD of clay soil sample. 1, illite (Al2Si3(OH)2); 2,
kaolinite (Al2Si2O5 (OH)4); 3, montmorillonite (Al2O34SiO2·H2O);
4, quartz; 5, calcite (CaCO3).
910 A.A. Ashango and N.R. Patra

Figure 4. XRD of RHA sample. 1, montorillonite Figure 6. XRD of optimum mix (82.5%Soil þ 7.5%
(Al2O34SiO2·H2O); 2, kaolinite (Al2Si2O5(OH)4); 3, illite PSC þ 10%RHA) sample after cyclic triaxial test. 1, illite
(Al2Si3(OH)2); 4, quartz; 5, calcite (CaCO3). (Al2Si3 (OH)2); 2, kaolinite (Al2Si2O5 (OH)4); 3, montmorillonite
(Al2O34SiO2·H2O); 4, quartz; 5, calcite (CaCO3).

5.2 Moisture– density relationship

Figure 5. XRD of optimum mix (82.5%Soil þ 7.5%
PSC þ 10%RHA) sample after static triaxial test. 1, illite
(Al2Si3(OH)2); 2, kaolinite (Al2Si2O5 (OH)4); 3, montmorillonite
(Al2O34SiO2·H2O); 4, quartz; 5, calcite (CaCO3).
Moisture –density relationships of stabilised clay soil
obtained from standard proctor tests are plotted for the
RHA and PSC mix containing 0%, 5%, 10%, 15% and
20% of RHA and 2.5%, 5% and 7.5% of PSC (Figures 7
and 8). The result shows that the OMC of stabilised soil
increases with increase in RHA. The MDD of stabilised
soil decreases with increase in RHA. The MDD and OMC
for clay soil are 16.12 kN/m3 and 22%, respectively. The
MDD and OMC for the optimum mix are 14.79 kN/m3 and
25.25%, respectively. The optimum mix is determined
from the UCS test results which are discussed in the next
section. The OMC increases from 22% to 25.25% and the
MDD decreases from 16.1 to 14.79 kN/m3 from virgin soil
to stabilised clay soil. The increase in OMC (from 22% to
25.25%) is observed at 10%RHA, 7.5% of PSC and 82.5%

after cyclic test, respectively. The clay soil sample has

the broad smooth hump between 26.782u and 26.882u
which indicates that the soil has major montmorillonite
(Al2O34SiO2·H2O) mineral. The broad smooth hump for
RHA is between 33.1582u and 33.2582u and shifts to the
right side compared to clay soil and the optimum mix. Its
intensity is less than the soil and greater than the optimum
mix after cyclic test as shown in Figure 4. The optimum
mix after static test has the broad smooth hump between
25.7582u and 25.8582u which indicates that the optimum
mix has major illite (Al2Si3(OH)2) mineral (Figure 5). The
optimum mix after cyclic test has the broad smooth hump
between 25.7582u and 25.8582u (Figure 6). The intensity is
reduced almost by half from static to cyclic test case for Figure 7. Variation of MDD with RHA for soil stabilized with
the optimum mix. PSC.
 International Journal of Pavement Engineering 911

Figure 9. Variation of compressive strength with RHA for

Figure 8. Variation of OMC with RHA for stabilized soil with stabilized soil with PSC.
PSC.

of soil. This may be due to the absorption of excess water

by RHA (Ali et al. 1992). The relatively lower specific
gravity of RHA compared to clay soil (Ali et al. 1992) and
PSC may be attributed to the replacement of soil by this
material which results in decrease in MDD. Both RHA and
PSC reduce the dry density. The dry density reduces
because of change in particle size and specific gravity of
the soil, RHA and Portland cement (Rahman 1987). The
decrease in dry density leads to low compactive energy,
and the cost of compaction becomes economical for soils
compacted at low compactive energy (Basha et al. 2005,
Muntohar 2006).

5.3 Unconfined compression tests

The effectiveness of stabilisation method for a given
material is most popularly evaluated by the UCS test
(Lambe 1958, Katti et al. 1966, Swaminathan 1976,
Rahman 1987). The strength of stabilised material
increases with increase in PSC as shown in Figure 9.
The optimum mix is the mix having highest UCS values
for the given condition and which is found to be 82.5%
Soil þ 7.5%PSC þ 10%RHA. For clay soil, the UCS
value is 193 kN/m2 and this value increased to 458 kN/m2
for 5% increase in RHA and 2.5% increase in PSC which
is about 57.8% higher. Also, the strength increases from
193 to 835 kN/m2 for 10% increase in RHA and 7.5%
increase in PSC in the mix which is 76.8% higher. The
strength of treated soil is greater than untreated soil.
Generally, the result shows that the strength of the mix is
increased up to 10% of RHA for different mixtures of PSC.
For different curing periods, the strength of the stabilised
soil increases with increase in curing periods as shown in
Figure 10. The UCS value of the stabilised mix increases
from 458 to 582 kN/m2 for the 7-day curing period for
2.5% of PSC and 2.5%RHA which is 21.3% increase.
Figure 10. Variation of compressive strength with curing days
for stabilized soil with PSC and RHA.
Typically, for 82.5%Soil þ 7.5%PSC þ 10%RHA mix,
the UCS value increases from 835 to 1190 kN/m2, 1330
and 1623 kN/m2 for 7, 14 and 30 days of curing periods,
respectively. The increase in strength in percent for this
mix is 29.83%, 37.2% and 48.55% for 7, 14 and 30 days of
curing periods, respectively. The increase in compressive
strength is due to frictional resistance from RHA and
cohesion from the expansive soil (Hossain 2011, Sabat and
Nanda 2011). The stress –strain curve for UCS tests for the
optimum mix at different curing periods is shown in
Figure 11. The failure strain is about 3.5% for 0 curing day
and 5% for 7, 14 and 30 curing days for the optimum mix.
5.4 CBR tests
The CBR test is a simple strength test that compares the
bearing capacity of a material with that of a well-graded
crushed stone (thus, a high quality crushed stone material
912 A.A. Ashango and N.R. Patra
Figure 11. Typical stress strain diagram for optimum mix at
different curing periods.
should have a CBR @ 100%) (AASHTO 2000). The CBR
tests were carried out on stabilised soil for different mix
proportions on unsoaked and soaked conditions. The
unsoaked CBR value increases from 8.27% to 15.8% with
increase in RHA up to 10% and PSC up to 7.5%. At 10%
RHA, the soaked CBR value increases with increase in PSC
from 2.5%, 5% and 7.5% to 9.35%, 12.6% and 14.8%,
respectively as shown in Figure 12. The curing effect was
studied for 7, 14 and 30 days. Four days soaking in water
were carried out for 90%Soil þ 10%RHA mixture sample
and 82.5%Soil þ 7.5%PSC þ 10%RHA mixture sample
after 7, 14 and 30 days of curing. The result of CBR test
shows that the CBR value increases from 14.8% to 19.59%
for the curing periods 7 –30 days which is 24.5% increase as
shown in Figure 13. The increase in CBR value shows that
the stabilised material quality is good enough for subgrade
material. The increase in CBR is due to the cementing
property of PSC and the pozzolanic property of RHA.
Figure 12. Variation of soaked CBR with PSC for stabilized
soil.
Figure 13. Variation of soaked CBR with curing days for
stabilized soil with RHA and PSC.
5.5 Durability tests
Durability tests were conducted in accordance with ASTM
D559 for 90%Soil þ 10%RHA sample mixture and 82.5%
Soil þ 7.5%PSC þ 10%RHA sample mixture. The 90%
Soil þ 10%RHA mix demolished after the 5th cycles due
to lack of any binder. However, 82.5%Soil þ 7.5%
PSC þ 10%RHA sample survived for 12 wet – dry cycles
due to the PSC binder and the UCS test was carried out to
determine the strength of the material. The result of
durability (Ri ¼ soaked UCS/unsoaked UCS) for soil
stabilised with PSC shows that Ri ¼ 0.91. Overall, the soil
stabilised with 7.5%PSC showed better durability than
untreated clay soil.
5.6 Cyclic test results
The variations of deviator stress with axial strain of
optimum mix (82.5%Soil þ 7.5%PSC þ 10%RHA)
sample have been plotted for different frequencies and
different strain amplitudes up to 300 cycles. Typical
diagrams for strain amplitude of 0.4% at 0.2 Hz is shown
in Figure 14. The deviatoric stress decreases with increase
in the number of cycles. The variations of excess pore
pressure with time of the optimum mix (82.5%
Soil þ 7.5%PSC þ 10%RHA) sample have been plotted
for different frequencies and different strain amplitudes up
to 300 cycles. Typical diagrams for strain amplitude of
0.4% at 0.2 Hz is shown in Figure 15. The excess pore
water pressure developed slowly and finally it reaches to
70% for 300 cycles. The variations of deviatoric stress
with mean normal effective stress of optimum mix (82.5%
Soil þ 7.5%PSC þ 10%RHA) sample have been plotted
for different frequencies and different strain amplitudes up
to 300 cycles. Typical diagrams for strain amplitude of
0.4% at 0.2 and 1 Hz are shown in Figures 16 and 17. The
mean effective stress is greater on the extension side and
 International Journal of Pavement Engineering
Figure 14. Variation of deviatoric stress with axial strain for
optimum mix (0.2 Hz).
Figure 15. Variation of excess pore water pressure with time for
optimum mix (0.2 Hz).
Figure 16. Variation of deviatoric stress with mean normal
effective stress for optimum mix (0.2 Hz).
913
Figure 17. Variation of deviatoric stress with mean normal
effective stress for optimum mix (1 Hz).
the compression side for 0.2 and 1 Hz frequency,
respectively.
The variations of shear modulus with numbers of
cycles of the optimum mix (82.5%Soil þ 7.5%
PSC þ 10%RHA) sample have been plotted for different
frequencies and different strain amplitudes. Typical
diagrams for strain amplitude of 0.4%, 0.6%, 0.8% and
1% at 0.2 and 1 Hz are shown in Figures 18 and 19,
respectively. The shear modulus decreases with increase in
strain amplitude. The shear modulus gradually decreases
up to 100 cycles and continually with decreasing slope up
to 300 cycles. The shear modulus decreases from 11,505 to
5870 kPa, 10,742 to 5088 kPa, 9255 to 3472 kPa and 9173
to 3155 kPa with increase in number of cycle at strain
amplitudes of 0.4%, 0.6%, 0.8% and 1%, respectively at
0.2 Hz frequency and it decreases from 14,565 to
3770 kPa, 7598 to 2252 kPa and 6492 to 1549 kPa with
increase in number of cycles at strain amplitudes of 0.4%,
0.8% and 1%, respectively, at 1 Hz frequency.
Figure 18. Variation of shear modulus with number of cycles
for optimum mix (0.2 Hz).
914 A.A. Ashango and N.R. Patra

Figure 19. Variation of shear modulus with number of cycles Figure 21. Variation of damping ratio with number of cycles for
for optimum mix (1 Hz). optimum mix (1 Hz).

The variations of damping ratio with number of cycles

of the optimum mix (82.5%Soil þ 7.5%PSC þ 10%RHA)
sample have been plotted for different frequencies and
different strain amplitudes. Typical diagrams for strain
amplitude of 0.4%, 0.6%, 0.8% and 1% at 0.2 and 1 Hz are
shown in Figures 20 and 21, respectively. The damping
ratio increases with increase in strain amplitude from 0.4%
to 1%. The damping ratio decreases from 12.7% to 9.1%,
14.75% to 11%, 17.8% to 13% and 19.5% to 14.9% with
increase in the number of cycles at strain amplitudes of
0.4%, 0.6%, 0.8% and 1%, respectively, at a frequency of
0.2 Hz. In the same way, at a frequency of 1 Hz the
damping ratio decreases from 19.8% to 16.54%, 21% to
17.5% and 24% to 19.6% with increase in number of cycle
at strain amplitudes of 0.4%, 0.8% and 1%, respectively.
The variations of degradation index with number of
cycles of optimum mix (82.5%Soil þ 7.5%PSC þ 10% Figure 22. Variation of degradation index with number of
RHA) sample have been plotted for different strain cycles for optimum mix (0.2 Hz).
amplitudes at a frequency of 0.2 and 1 Hz and are shown in
Figures 22 and 23. Idriss et al. (1978) reported that the
degradation index, d, can be determined from the ratio of

Figure 20. Variation of damping ratio with number of cycles for Figure 23. Variation of degradation index with number of
optimum mix (0.2 Hz). cycles for optimum mix (1 Hz).
 International Journal of Pavement Engineering
secant modulus in the Nth cycle to secant modulus in the
first cycle.
The degradation index decreases at a fast rate for first
25 –50 cycles and then it is almost constant or the decrease
is negligible. The degradation index decreases from 1% to
0.51%, 1% to 0.47%, 1% to 0.37% and 1% to 0.34% with
increase in the number of cycle at strain amplitudes of
0.4%, 0.6%, 0.8% and 1%, respectively, at a frequency of
0.2 Hz. In the same way, the degradation index decreases
from 1% to 0.26%, 1% to 0.25% and 1% to 0.24% with
increase in the number of cycles at strain amplitudes of
0.4%, 0.8% and 1%, respectively, at a frequency of 1 Hz.
The percentage decrease in degradation index is about
33% and 7.7% for strain amplitude varying from 0.4% to
1% at a frequency of 0.2 and 1 Hz, respectively.
6. Conclusions
Based on the study, the following conclusions are drawn:
(1) The clay soil collected from new Banda, Uttar
Pradesh, India has been stabilised with RHA and
PSC. The percentage of soil, PSC and RHA that
gives the optimum mix is 82.5%, 7.5% and 10%,
respectively. The MDD decreases with increase in
PSC and RHA. However, the OMC increases with
increase in PSC and RHA in soil mixture. As a
general rule, the higher the compressive strength,
the better the quality of the stabilised material. The
compressive strength increases from 193 to
835 kN/m2 for the optimum mix and the percen-
tage increase is about 76.8%. For the optimum
mix, the increase in strength is about 29.83%,
37.2% and 48.55% for 7, 14 and 30 days of curing,
respectively. The failure strain is about 3.5%, for 0
curing day and 5% for 7, 14 and 30 curing days for
the optimum mix.
(2) The soaked CBR test results show that the CBR
value increases with increase in PSC and RHA for
the mix. About 91.75% increase in soaked CBR is
recorded for the optimum mix from virgin soil
which has 1.22% of CBR. After 12 wet –dry
cycles, the optimum mix survived and the
durability of the material is 0.91 to that of
unsoaked strength of the optimum mix.
(3) Strain-controlled cyclic triaxial tests have been
conducted to study the variation of degradation
index, d, shear modulus, G and damping ratio,
D of the optimum mix of soil with number of
cycles for different strain amplitudes of 0.4%,
0.6%, 0.8% and 1% and effective confining
pressure of 100 kPa at a frequency of 0.2 and
1 Hz. The shear modulus decreases with increase
in the number of cycles and the damping ratio also
decreases with increase in the number of cycles.
915
The degradation index decreases at a fast rate for
first 25– 50 cycles and then it is almost constant or
the decrease is negligible. The percentage
decrease in degradation index is about 33% for
strain amplitude varying from 0.4% to 1% at
0.2 Hz frequency.
(4) Based on dry density, strength, durability and CBR
values, the stabilised subgrade material is suitable
for subgrade of flexible pavement.
Note
1. Email: argaw97@gmail.com
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