Soil Stabilisation Using Sustainable Industrial By-Product Binders and Alkali Activation

This paper presents a laboratory study to assess the performance and feasibility of using various industrial-by-products and alkali activation in stabilising an artificial soft soil. Various geotechnical and mineralogical tests were conducted for curing periods up to 56 days. Comparisons with the performances of non-activated and CEM-I stabilised soils were made. Results indicate that stabilisation using blast furnace slag based binders and alkali activation resulted in the most enhanced engineering performances; whereby alkali activation was seen to initiate pozzolanic reactions and subsequent mechanical property improvements with time, such as strength.