GEOTECHNICAL APPLICATIONS OF WASTE

MATERIALS
1. GEOTECHNICAL APPLICATIONS OF INDUSTRIAL WASTE

Solid wastes can be generally divided into domestic, commercial and industrial
wastes. Generally, industrial wastes are demanded by manufacturers, which are
usually used in the field of construction due to its large amount of waste. In particular,
wastes from iron, copper, zinc, gold and aluminum industries; bricks, fine and rough
light aggregates and tiles, waste gypsum, lime mud, limestone waste, broken glass
and ceramics, marble processing and kiln dust waste; block, brick, cement clinker,
fibrous plasterboard, gypsum plaster and super sulphate cement are demanded. There
are problems with the storage of wastes in a case of their abandonment to
environment, they cause environmental and image pollution. Waste has been
extensiely used in recent years, especially in road constructions. Consumption of
quarry materials used on roads which result in the reduction. At the same time, there
is an improvement in the utilitaion of waste materials in seating, permeability,
swelling, and transport strength problems. Some of the waste materials are in the form
of dust and some of them are used as aggregate. Wastes are generally considered as
aggregates in geotechnical engineering. Dust wastes generally contribute to the
physical, mechanical and physico-chemical properties of the material by entering into
a chemical reaction on fine-grained soils. In this way, the use of unsuitable materials
and of waste are ensured. The changes in physico-chemical properties are active in
clay soils with plus/minus loads. In geotechnical engineering, soils have problems
such as seating, swelling, permeability, and transportability. In order to ensure that
these properties satisfy desired requirement, improvement works are usually carried
out on these soils. Soil remediation is usually applied where inappropriate
construction of engineering structures is required. Particularly problematic soils are
clayey, peat and marsh areas. Large coarse grounds and the excess of void ratio cause
large elastic settlement in these soils. When such a situation is encountered
mechanical improvement is made to reduce the void ratio, increase the unit volume
weight and increased strength.

However, fine-grained soils have a high percentage of voids and cause them to settle
if groundwater is near to the surface. In such a case, drainage and chemical
improvement are applied. Chemical remediation fly ash, blast furnace slag, marble
dust are usually provided by materials such as lime, cement, asphalt, or wastes. If
large pieces of desired aggregate break while using, mix of dust wastes the soil is
expected which enter the reaction. In this case, the issue of chemical remediation
comes into play. The definition of soil improvement can be made entirely as time
mechanical and chemical processes to reduce settlement, increase strength, and
reduce swelling/shrinkage susceptibility of soils which do not have proper durability.
Soil remediation methods can be categorized into dynamic mixing, vibroflotation,
preloading, mixing of drains (sand or artificial) and additives. Many studies have
been carried out the use of wastes, and as a result of improvements made with the
additive material, they have generally been found to change soil properties. Ural
2001 worked on the evaluation of the ceramic waste and waste dump sand in the
design of an garbage storage area. Physical experiments on different mixtures have
shown the ability to use wastes by performing the standard reaction, free pressure,
permeability and leachet experiments. Zorluer 2003 stated that the use of waste
marble dust on the ground reduces the potential for clay swelling. Güney and
Koyuncu 2002 worked on the use of waste foundry sand in road sub-structures.
Within the scope of the study, samples of casting sand, kaolin, crushed stone and
cement were mixed with different ratios and samples were prepared. Standard Proctor
test, free pressure, California bearing ratio (CBR), permeability and freeze-thaw
experiments were carried out. At the end of the study, the researchers stated that
appropriate additive materials and waste sand can be used easily in sub-structures.
They also said that a certain amount of cement and lime additive could be used as a
sub-base material with the addition of crushed stone. Özkan 2007 investigated the
properties of mortars containing binder waste glass bottles and industrial by-products
as binders. For this purpose, mortar specimens were produced by replacing the blast
furnace slag with cement in various proportions. The highest result was obtained
when 10% colorless glass-blast furnace slag displacement in pressure resistance. In
other endurance tests the reference results were high at all displacement rates. Fıratet
al. 2012 investigated fly ash, marble dust and waste sand as a potential alternative
filling materials in the road sub-base. The amount of work soils was replaced with
0%, 5%, 10%, 15%, 20% of fly ash, marble dust and waste sand. They conducted
Standard compaction, permeability, soaked CBR tests, X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and
Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) analysis.At the end of the work, they stated
that that the fly ash, marble dust, and waste sand have a good effect. Kiran et al.
2014 studied improvements in the properties of clayey soil with fly ash and steel slag.
By conduct of Atterberg's limit, Compaction test and CBR test on admixture. They
observed improvement in admixture with fly ash and steel slag. Chauhan et al. 2015
investigated utilization of cut waste plastic and glass in the soil with a different
proportions. At the end of the work, they stated that it improved the strength
parameter of soil. Joe and Rajesh 2015 studied industrial wastes as an alternative to
conventional aggregate materials for highway construction. This purpose was used
waste sand copper slag, cement, and lime. They conducted specific gravity, sieve
analysis, Proctor compaction test, unconfined compressive strength and CBR test.
They stated that stabilization improves the strength behavior of sub-base and so can
potentially reduce soil improvement costs. Fauzi et al. 2016 investigated the
engineering properties on utilizing waste plastic high-density polyethylene and waste
crushed glass as the additive on subgrade improvement. The researchers carried out
physical properties, standard compaction, soaked CBR and triaxial test on some
clayey soils. In addition, integrated electron microscope and energy-dispersive X-Ray
spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) were conducted. At the end of the work, they said that
engineering properties and CBR of stabilized soils were improved when the content
of waste HDPE and glass were increased. Jan et al. 2015 studied soil with different
percent and sizes shredded rubber tire and the steel belting. Researchers carried out
CBR test. Finally, they stated that with increased increased CBR value, total cost can
be decreased. Many studies have shown that the assessment of industrial wastes is
appropriate to reduce storage problems improve the environment and human health.
Thus, the contribution to the country's economy can't be denied, considering that the
waste used in the construction sector, leads to the reduction of the use of rawmaterials
and the decrease of the material transportation.

2. GEOTECHNICAL APPLICATIONS OF HAZARDOUS WASTE

The disposal and treatment of hazardous industrial waste is very costly affairs for the
industries, it has been a dormant issue. The new millennium brings challenges for the
civil and environmental engineers and opportunities for research on the utilization of
the solid waste and by-products and basic properties of concrete and its materials. The
recycling of waste and byproducts attracts an increasing interest worldwide due to the
high environmental impact of the cement and concrete industries. Normal concrete is
manufactured using sand and stones, but lightweight concrete can be made by using
industrial by-products and hazardous solid wastes such as expanded fly ash, slag,
sludge, etc. The Best Demonstrated Available Technology (BDAT)
stabilization/solidification (S/S) can be used for treatment of concrete contaminated
solid hazardous wastes and by-products. The performance of concrete is measured in
terms of physical, engineering, and chemical properties. Due to environmental
degradation, high energy consumption, and financial constraints, various
organizations in India and abroad, as well as United States Environmental Protection
Agency (USEPA) have recommended various qualitative guidelines for generation,
treatment, transport, handling, disposal, and recycling of non-hazardous and
hazardous wastes. It is now a global concern, to find a social, techno-economic,
environmental friendly solution to sustain a cleaner and greener environment. The
environmental technology, disposal and treatment of hazardous industrial waste has
been a dormant issue that has recently been activated by the passage of the Resource
Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). Already accumulated solid wastes and
increasing annual production are a major source of pollution. In different countries,
some of such wastes are used for landfilling abandoned quarries and mines and
adopting alternative method. The hazardous solids and sludges require a secure
chemical landfill. Research has been conducted to recycle valuable material and
reduce the volume of hazardous solid waste and other pollutants, which is harmful for
living organisms.

Industrial by-product (class F - fly ash, slag) can be used in large amount as
replacement material of cement in concrete. It can be added in a quantity of 10% to
about 35% by weight of cement. It will be very beneficial in reducing CO2 emission
during production of cement, preventing the global warming. If the class C fly ash is
used in the concrete mix higher replacement level is possible. If the replacement level
is more then 25%, it shows marginal reduction in the strength. Fly ash reacts with free
lime after the hydration to form calcium silicate hydrate, which is similar to the
tricalcium and dicalcium silicates formed in cement curing. Through this process, fly
ash increases concrete strength, improves sulfate resistance, decreases permeability,
reduces the water ratio required, and improves the workability of the concrete. Fly ash
with low sulfur and carbon contain is better for concrete. Research have investigated
various properties of concrete containing by-products and waste materials such as
Granulated Blast-Furnace Slag GBFS), Fly Ash (FA), Bottom Ash (BA), Silica Fume,
Waste Glass (WG) as mineral admixture, aggregate replacement or binding material.
Study on possible usage of BA and GBFS in production of plain concrete elements
was performed. It was reported that replacement of BA decreases the unit weight of
briquette. Usage of BA makes feasible up to 30% partial replacement of aggregate in
production of briquettes. ove U.S. EPA limits. Partial substitution (15% or 30% by
mass) of cement by Sewage Sludge Ash (SSA) does not strongly affect the strength of
mortars cured at 40 °C for 3- to 28-day curing periods. High sulfur content in SSA
does not have a decisive influence on strength development. Fineness of SSA is an
important parameter for strength development of SSA/cement mortars: the coarsest
fraction yields the lowest strength values. In this study sewage sludge was used as an
additive in order to develop new construction materials. For this purpose, several
mixtures of sludge cement calcium chloride and calcium hydroxide were prepared
and Stabilized/Solidified (S/S). Calcium chloride and calcium hydroxide were used as
accelerating additives. Jarosite released from zinc metal extraction process is
hazardous in nature. Statistically designed experiments on S/S sintered jarosite CCRs
products confirmed that the compressive strength of jarosite bricks reached as high as
140 kg/cm2 with 14.5% water absorption capacity at the combination of 3:1 ratio of
jarosite and clay, respectively, but, concentrations of all the toxic elements
recommended by U.S.EPA TCLP standard are not within the permissible limits.
Mineral admixtures used in concrete were fly ash, metakaolin, GGBS, and silica fume
since many important structures built with silica fume in concrete are used for
durability aspects. A new highly effective alkali activator like SFA (Silica Fume
Activator) showed high value of the compressive strength after 28 days curing than
used activator like sodium hydroxide, sodium carbonate, and water glass. S/S
technology (BDAT) can easily and cheaply handles large quantities of waste
materials and byproducts containing heavy metals, as an alternative to OPC (ordinary
Portland cement).The s/s technology can be used to treat a wide range of hazardous
constituents within the same media or waste. s/s treated soils have improved
construction characterisctics allowing the soil to be reused at the redevelopment site.

3. GEOTECHNICAL APPLICATIONS OF MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE

Several MSW characterization systems for geotechnical purposes have been proposed
since the early 1990s. These systems have been developed to collect relevant
information about the waste with respect to its geotechnical response (e.g., hydraulic
conductivity, shear strength, stiffness, and compressibility). Geotechnical aspects of
landfill performance include the overburden pressure due to the weight of the waste
mass, landfill stability under static and seismic conditions, settlement of the waste
mass, performance of deep and shallow foundations on or in the waste, and dynamic
response of the waste material during earthquakes. The incineration of MSW is a
common practise to reduce its volume to be disposed in a landfill. Some researchers
have shown that the MSWI ash can be utilized for geotechnical applications such as
aggregate in road construction, embankments and landfills. The other application of
MSWI ash is mixed with soils, lime, cement or concrete, which improves the physical
properties of finished product. The use of MSWI ash in geotechnical application can
solve many geo environmental problems and the related issues. The behaviour of
soluble salts contained on the municipal solid waste incinerator ash significantly
affects the strength development and hardening reaction when stabilized with cement.
Thus the combination of MSWIash and cement can be used as a light weight filling
material in different structures like embankment and road construction.