Unconfined compressive strength of fly ash reinforced with jute geotextiles

A series of unconfined compressive strength (UCS) tests have been conducted on unreinforced fly ash as well as fly ash reinforced with jute geotextiles. The effects of different governing parameters viz., degree of saturation, size of samples, number of jute geotextile layers and age of sample on UCS have been studied. From the test results it is found that the values of UCS are maximum at degree of saturation of 70–75%. The effect of sample size on the values of UCS for unreinforced fly ash is insignificant, whereas with increase in diameter of sample, values of UCS increase in case of reinforced fly ash. With increase in number of jute geotextile layers for reinforced fly ash samples, values of UCS increase and maximum enhancement is found to be around 525% with 4 layers of reinforcement. A non-linear power model has been developed to estimate unconfined compressive strength (UCS_R) of fly ash reinforced with jute geotextiles in terms of unconfined compressive strength (UCS_UR) of unreinforced fly ash and number of layers of reinforcement (N).