Due to the scarcity of well-graded gravel materials, lateritic soils are widely used for road construction in tropic areas. However, lateritic soils often do not meet the strict requirement for subgrade and need to be improved to be used as construction material. Among several approaches used to enhance the engineering properties of lateritic soils, the use of industrial waste materials, such as fly ash, granulated blast furnace slag, is of particular interest to the construction industry as a potential replacement material for Portland cement in soil stabilization. Meanwhile, some effort has been made to study the use of quarry dust in stabilizing lateritic soils. The present work aims at assessing the compaction characteristics of three different types of lateritic soils, treated with quarry dust based geopolymer cement. A systematic study by varying the proportion of geopolymer cement was carried out. Test results show that the soil dry density substantially increased while the corresponding optimal moisture content decreased with the amount of geopolymer cement under varying compactive effort.

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Volume change in expansive soils is a problem encountered in earth work around the world. This is prominent with hydraulically bound structures or foundations subjected to prolonged moisture exposure. This behavior of clayey used as subgrade, foundation, landfill, or backfill materials causes undesirable structural functionality and failures. To prevent this happening, clayey soils are studied for possible volume change potential and degree of expansion. Consequently, the problematic soils are stabilized. In this work, the stabilization of clayey highly expansive soil classified as A-7-6 soil and highly plastic with high clay content was conducted under laboratory conditions. The treatment exercise was experimented using quicklime-activated rice husk ash (QARHA), hydrated lime-activated rice husk ash (HARHA), and calcite-activated rice husk ash (CARHA) at the rates of 1%, 2%, 3%, 4%, 5%, 6%, 7%, 8%, 9%, and 10%. Upon treatment with the three calcium compounds to produce three sets of treated experimental specimens, the plasticity index was observed and recorded and swelling potentials were evaluated using the plasticity index method (PIM). The results showed a consistent improvement on the properties of the treated soil with the addition of the different activated admixtures. While the utilization of CARHA and HARHA improved the clayey soil to medium expansive soil, the treated clayey soil substantially improved from highly expansive soil with a potential of 23.35% to less expansive with a final potential of 0.59% upon the addition of 10% QARHA. Finally, QARHA was adjudged as the best binding composite due to the highest rate of reduction recorded with its utilization.

The shrinkage limit is one of the Atterberg limits and is a fundamental geotechnical parameter used to assess the settlement and other volume change parameters of engineering soils containing clays. This paper describes shrinkage limits and index tests results on expansive soil treated with rice husk ash (RHA) and 5%, 10% and 15% quicklime activated rice husk ash (QARHA) obtained using laboratory testing procedure. The representative soil was subjected to classification tests and it was found to be high expansive soil, an A-7-6 soil according to American Association of States Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) and poorly graded according to Universal Soil Classification System (USCS). It was classified as highly plastic soil. The soil was subjected to treatment exercise at the rate of 0% (reference), 2%, 4%, 6%, 8% and 10% addition of RHA, 5%-QARHA, 10%-QARHA and 15%-QARHA by weight of dry soil. The RHA addition improved the shrinkage properties; shrinkage limit at varying rates ranging from 5.7%, to 27.9% for 2%, and 10% RHA addition respectively with reference to the control experiment. And for the shrinkage index, the improvement rate was also substantial i.e. 7.8% to 55.7% at 2% and 10% RHA addition respectively with reference to the control experiment. The effect of rice husk ash activated with 5% quicklime lime (5%-QARHA) showed improvement rate of 6.6% and 34.4% at 2% and 10% 5%-QARHA addition respectively with reference to the control experiment. Also, the effect of rice husk ash activated by 10% and 15% quicklime (10%-QARHA and 15%-QARHA) on the shrinkage properties was presented with the rates of improvement which shows that the higher the rate of activation of rice husk ash with quicklime, the higher the pozzolanic performance Finally, rice husk ash and its composites achieved by quicklime activation process have shown to be alternative cementing materials for use as binders in the modification of expansive soils utilized as subgrade materials.

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