Abstract
Soil treatment is of vital concern in geoenvironmental and construction engineering in present times as suitable naturally occurring materials are rapidly depleted. Efforts are continually invested towards the resourceful utilization of wastes as fillers, cement enhancers, stabilizers and blenders with little or no significant impacts on the environment. This paper explains the use of a locally available and abundant agricultural waste- Rice husk ash (RHA) in West Africa, Nigeria for the treatment and stabilization of kaolinitic clay (KC) sampled from an active landfill site in Johannesburg, South Africa. The impact of incorporating different percentages of RHA on the compressibility characteristics of a parent compressible landfill KC sample was investigated under a One-dimensional consolidation test. Compacted soil specimens were treated at optimum water content (OWC) and maximum dry unit weight (MDUW) by the addition of agricultural waste material to the parent KC. The compacted specimens were subjected incremental vertical loading in a fixed ring consolidometer device. This was done with a view to closely simulate the waste loading effects from a typical landfill on a treated and parent clay/clayey bottom barrier based on one-dimensional consolidation behaviours. The introduction of RHA waste material to the parent KC revealed an outcome with substantial improvements in compaction characteristics. Hence, the results presented herein showed the agricultural waste to positively increase one-dimensional rigidity while settlement was effectively decreased. From results and analysis, the KC stabilized with RHA can withstand loadings from waste heaps under conditions as were applied in this study. With due recommended examination by geoenvironmental specialists, the stabilized material may be considered as an environmental and cost saving beneficiation approach for use in landfill liners.