International Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics

Volume 118 No. 24 2018

ISSN: 1314-3395 (on-line version)
url: http://www.acadpubl.eu/hub/
Special Issue
http://www.acadpubl.eu/hub/

Peat Soil Stabilization and Effect on

Plasticity Index and Compaction Value
Siti Nur Aida Mario a , Rudy Tawie b∗,
Farah Hafifee Ahmadc , Mazidah Mukri d ,
Maureen Neging e ,
a,b,c,e
Faculty of Civil Engineering,
Universiti Teknologi MARA, Cawangan Sarawak
d
Faculty of Civil Engineering,
Universiti Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam
*Corresponding Author Email: rudy@sarawak.uitm.edu.my

April 1, 2018

Abstract
This research describes a study on the stabilization po-
tential of peat soil with various stabilizers such as ordinary
Portland cement (OPC), fly ash (FA) and activated carbon
(AC) produced from oil palm shell. Peat soil, character-
ized by its high moisture content, is commonly occurs as
extremely soft and highly organic soil. Peat soil with very
high in moisture content accumulates faster and less decom-
posed compared to peat soil accumulating in lower moisture
condition. Peat soil that contains very high moisture is
considered as highly compressible and low shear strength.
Therefore, most engineering projects are not suitable to take
place on peat soil.In this experimental study, peat soil was
collected from Matang, Kuching and transferred immedi-
ately to laboratory. An experimental procedure was devel-
oped to measure the plasticity and compaction characteris-
tics of peat soil before and after the stabilization process.
The results showed the lowest plasticity index of peat soil
was stabilized with 80% FAAC and 20% OPC. Meanwhile,

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peat soil added with FA recorded the lowest optimum mois-

ture content (OMC) and the highest maximum dry density
(MDD) value. This improvement in the geotechnical char-
acteristics of treated peat soil indicates that FA has the
potential to be used as stabilizing agent and the addition of
AC to FA can reduce the harmful chemical in FA to preserve
the environment for future generation.
Key Words:Peat Soil, Plasticity; Compaction; Fly Ash;
Activated Carbon

1 Introduction
Peat soil is the result of disintegration and partially decomposed
of plant materials that occur in the environment which consists of
low oxygen and can be described as naturally high in percentage
of fibrous organic matters(1). Peat soil when exposed to very wet
environment will absorb the moisture very well. Compared to other
types of soil, peat soil acts as a good water retention. For this rea-
son, peat contains very high in moisture up to more than 1000%.
Peat soil bearing capacity is significantly reduced as a result of
increasing in moisture content and this condition poses problems
in construction process because peat soil does not provide suitable
support in the construction of infrastructures(2). In its natural un-
treated condition, peat soil is characterized as non-plastic because it
contains of high foreign material and very little clay content in soil
body. This paper presents the effect of cement treated peat soil with
addiction of FA and AC to the physical and geotechnical properties
of peat soil. In this experimental work, atterberg limit of treated
peat specimens will be determined to indicate their response to dif-
ferent moisture condition. In order to indicate the constructability
and soil swell/shrink properties, plasticity index (PI) which is the
size of the range of water contents where the soil exhibits plastic
properties was calculated. Furthermore, optimum moisture content
(OMC) will be determined by assessing the compaction character-
istics of peat soil prior and after the treatment. The significant of
this research is on the innovation in cement treated peat by reduc-
ing the cement content and replacing cement with FA with addition
of AC as an environmental friendly solution.

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2 Literature Review
Peatlands occur about 25,000 square kilometers in Malaysia equiv-
alent to about 8% of the country’s land. Malaysia is a relatively
small country area, but the country has the 9th largest peat area
in the world. About 69% of Malaysia’s peatlands are in Sarawak.
Most of the major cities such as Sibu and Kuching are located on
peat soil. Due to plant materials such as roots, leaves and branches
that partially decayed in this soil, peat has very low or non-plastic
soil with a very high amount of moisture content. Therefore, peat
soil is considered as problematic when it comes to engineering con-
struction. For this reason, building infrastructures over peat soil
can lead to a major construction problem. The structure will easily
collapse when constructed on peat soil because of their very low
bearing capacity.
Soil stabilization is an alternative method used in engineering
construction which improves the geotechnical characteristics of peat
soil by adding the additives to peat soil in order to increase the soil
shear strength and reduce compressibility(3). In construction, to
have a stable ground is very important at the first place. Therefore,
peat stabilization prior to a construction on peat soil is very crucial.
Among various methods that have been applied to stabilize peat
soil, mechanical stabilization and chemical stabilization are very
popular methods to be used. The Mesopotamians and Romans
were the founder of chemical stabilization in construction industry.
They achieved stabilization of soft soil by incorporating it with
calcium and pulverized limestone as binder, which can significantly
increase the strength and bearing capacity(4). Cement, bentonite,
and lime are widely used as stabilizers in chemical stabilization(5).
Nowadays, there are many studies on improving ground for con-
struction of infrastructures and most of the studies focus on types
of stabilizers used in soil stabilization. Not all soils can be stabi-
lized with the same stabilizer. There are different stabilizers that
can stabilize certain soil types. Soil stabilizers are well known as
a binding agent to bind together the soil particles, reducing the
moisture content, multiply the soil volume that will result in soil
density increment and some stabilizers can also reduce the harmful
material that affecting the soil workability(6).
Numerous scholars have shown the positive results by using dif-

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International Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics Special Issue

ferent types of stabilizers into the soil to increase the soil con-
structability for the construction of infrastructures. Huat et al.
(7)investigated that the increasing amount in cement content and
effect of curing time to the strength of treated peat soil in uncon-
fined compressive strength test for the samples treated with ce-
ment. The value of unconfined compressive strength significantly
increased until 28 days after the treatment. The more cement con-
tent added, resulted in achievement of higher strength. Another
study also showed positive effect in geotechnical characteristics of
peat soil by adding cement together with sand and bentonite in
soil stabilization(8). In order to get sufficient strength and weight
bearing capacity, Wong et al. (9)investigated soil treatment by a
little content of cement added with sand and slag. They analyzed
that specific amount of Portland cement and addition with other
additive to increase the soil density is required in soil stabilization
to form a stable soil condition because peat itself contains a very
little soil body.
Soil column is one of the soft soil stabilization methods and has
been widely known as an effective solution for construction prob-
lem on soft peatland. Hashim and Islam (10) used physical testing
to identify the quality of post stabilization peat columns and com-
pressive strength test was conducted to investigate the strength
enhancement. So far, ordinary portland cement is the best binding
agent to increase the strength of peat because of its binding prop-
erty that successfully bind together the soil particles unlike other
different stabilizers that only filled the soil to improve the volume
and increase the soil density but lack in strength enhancement.
However, ordinary Portland cement alone as additive not only de-
creases the plasticity of the soil, it contains hazardous heavy met-
als that can be harmful to environmental and lead to groundwater
quality deterioration as well.
This experimental study focused on reducing the amount of ce-
ment usage by replacing it with by-product from coal power plant,
fly ash and industry manufactured oil palm shell activated carbon.
The most common cement replacement alternative that has been
extensively used is fly ash because it is readily available in the mar-
ket(11). Different dosage of fly ash was used in soft soil stabilization
to study the impact on plasticity, compaction behavior and CBR
values of soft soil. However, due to heavy metal content traces in fly

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ash, excessive use of fly ash in stabilization of soft soil will severely
impact the environment and mostly to the groundwater quality.
Previous research proved the usage of activated carbon for soil
quality improvement. Positive result was obtained where activated
carbon successfully absorbed and neutralized foreign material. Ac-
tivated carbon can also be used as a media in the filtration of water
and air purifier. Many researchers have successfully proved that
activated carbon is an excellent filtration media to remove heavy
metals. A study by Mohamed (12) showed favorable outcome of
copper, lead and cadmium removal when the aqueous solution fil-
tered with activated carbon as filtration media. The effectiveness
of activated carbon on the zinc and plumbum removal was inves-
tigated by Asong(13). Removal of heavy metal was carried out by
adding various doses of activated carbon in the study. Chemical
tests were performed to investigate chemical reaction between ac-
tivated carbon and heavy metals in stock solution. Vasilyeva et al.
(14)found out that activated carbon is a potential material as soil
conditioner that can significantly reduce toxic content in a very con-
taminated land. The physical properties of activated carbon such
as large surface area and hollow voids show positive effect to highly
contaminated soil neutralization as the hollow voids in the activated
carbon trapped the bacteria in the voids. The main objectives of
using additives such as fly ash and activated carbon to replace ce-
ment in peat stabilization are to evaluate the enhancement in plas-
tic characteristics and geotechnical properties of treated peat soil.
Addition of activated carbon significantly reduces heavy metal con-
tent in fly ash, hence promotes a green and healthier environment
for future generation.

3 Methodology
3.1 Material
Peat Soil
Peat soil sampling was conducted on peat land at Matang,
Sarawak. Peat specimens were obtained at range of depth between
0.3 m to 0.8 m below the surface of the ground. Peat at its natural
moist condition was observed to be dark brown in physical colour.
On site physical observation showed that the ground water table

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was very near to the ground surface. The blue dot in Figure 1
shows the location of peat sampling for this experimental study.

Figure 1: Location of peat soil sampling at Matang, Sarawak

Binding Agent
Ordinary Portland cement was used in this study as a binding
agent to stabilize the peat soil. Ordinary portland cement is a ma-
terial that has been mostly used especially in the construction of
structures and infrastructures in the construction industry. Ordi-
nary Portland cement is often been used in soil stabilization to act
as a soil binder and harden the soft soil.
Additives
Two types of additive used in this experiment were fly ash and
industrial manufactured activated carbon from oil palm shell. Fly
ash or also known as pulverised fuel ash is a by-product produced in
the combustion chamber consisting of very fine particles removed
from boilers with flue gas. Fly ash was used in this experiment
to improve the reduction of moisture content in peat so that ce-
ment reaction in the peat soil can be enhanced. Activated carbon
made from oil palm shell was developed by using steamed activa-
tion method. Commercialized activated carbon is available in two
types: powder and granular. Compared to granular activated car-
bon, powdered activated carbon has larger surface area and larger
pores. For the purpose of this experimental study, powder form of
activated carbon was used due to better absorptive capacity that
resulted in high potential efficacy of heavy metal removal in fly ash.
The novelty of using fly ash treated with activated carbon is the
potential of preventing heavy metal from leaking into groundwater
and preserved healthy environment for future generation.

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3.2 Laboratory Testing

To evaluate the effect of addition of fly ash and activated carbon to
the properties of cement treated peat soil, laboratory experiments
according to the ASTM Standards were conducted. Testing for
moisture content of peat was conducted immediately to get the
precise amount of moisture content in peat soil.
Index Properties
Degree of humification and moisture content are the most im-
portant properties to be determined in peat soil. Both properties
will affect all other properties such as atterberg limit, specific grav-
ity and organic content of peat soil. Degree of humification was
assessed on site where the Von Post scale was used to classify type
of peat soil. Moisture content determination was performed right
after the soil sampling and was determined by depth from surface
to 1.2 m underground.
Plasticity Index
Plasticity index test consisted of two different tests, namely plas-
tic limit test to indicate the limit where the soil starts to behave as
plastic from solid behavior and liquid limit test to indicate the limit
where the soil becomes less sticky, consistency liquid and start to
be more plastic in nature. Together they are known as Atterberg
Limit tests. Atterberg limit tests can be carried out to evaluate
the changing in soil consistency to moisture condition in soil. All
the tests mentioned above were conducted in the soil laboratory
and the procedures were adopted from the ASTM D4318-10. For
liquid limit test, they are two methods that are normally used;
Casagandre method and cone penetrometer method. Cone pen-
etrometer method can be used to get more a accurate liquid limit
value for peat soil. Casagandre method is very hard to do on peat
soil because of the non-plastic characteristics of peat soil. For that
reason, cone penetrometer method was used to determine the liquid
limit of the peat soil. Plasticity index determined by measuring the
amount of moisture content may occur in the range between both
limits measured in this experiment. Determination of plasticity in-
dex is significant in order to indicate the constructability of the soil
based on their shrink or swell properties. After soil stabilization,
measuring plasticity index is important in order to know the soil
binder/additives properties and their reaction to peat soil. Based

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International Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics Special Issue

on the experimental study by Majeed and Taha(15), using nano-

materials as stabilizing agent in soft soil modification can affect
the soft soil plasticity index value. Plasticity index can be calcu-
lated based on the liquid limit and plastic limit value by using the
following formula:
Ip = Wl Wp
Where,
Ip = Plasticity Index
Wl = Liquid limit
Wp = Plastic limit
Standard Proctor Compaction
By referring to ASTM D 689-91, standard proctor compaction
test was conducted on natural peat and stabilized peat soil. The
objective is to investigate the reduction of the air void in the soil
particles and increment of contact between surfaces of soil particles
by forcing soil into a tighter state resulted in the enhancement of
the soil density. This experiment was accomplished by applying
dynamic loads to the soil.

3.3 Testing Programs

Index Properties
Properties determination such as degree of humification and
moisture content was performed on freshly collected peat soil. Other
experimental tests, namely atterberg limit and specific gravity were
performed after preparation of the specimens. Both test were per-
formed on peat soil in natural condition and stabilized peat soil.
Moisture content test was performed right after the soil sampling
and determined by depth every 0.3m from surface which is specified
as 0 m until 1.2 m below ground surface. The purpose of carrying
out the procedure was to investigate the original moisture content
of peat soil collected from peat site in Matang.
Engineering Properties (Compaction)
Proctor compaction test was carried out by applying dynamic
load which consisted of 2.5 kg compaction hammer. From the test,
maximum dry density (MDD) and optimum water content (OMC)
values were obtained. Compaction tests were performed on each
prepared soil sample by blowing the sample with 27 blows each
layer for equally distributed three layers. Amount of water was

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gradually increased for the next tests. Moisture-density relationship

curve graph was plotted to indicate the value for MDD and OMC
for each sample.

4 Results and Findings

Index properties were determined at the beginning of the experi-
mental program in order to indicate the characteristics of untreated
peat soil. Physical characteristics of original condition of peat soil
are shown in Table 1.

Table 1: Physical Characteristics of Original Peat

Figure 2 shows plasticity index value for various type of addi-

tives. Peat soil with very little or no clay content is considered as
non-plastic soil and addition of ordinary portland cement will main-
tain the non-plasticity of the peat soil. In general, a less amount
of clay content in peat soil would make it difficult to perform the
plastic limit test. Reaction between ordinary Portland cement and
existing water in peat natural condition will bind together the soil
particles to form a soil-cement structure and reduces the plasticity
of soil. This can be remarked that the test would be more difficult
to perform on peat that has been added with ordinary Portland
cement.

Figure 2: Plasticity index value for various types of additives

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Standard Proctor compaction testing was performed on six spec-

imens (set of test specimens were used to establish the compaction
curves as shown in Fig. 3. In Table 2, it is clear that the maximum
dry density of soil is found to increase while the optimum water
content is found to decrease when peat soil is treated with various
type of stabilizers. Peat soil sample has Maximum Dry Density
(MDD) of 6.81 kN/m3 and Optimum Moisture Content (OMC) of
52.68 %. However, it can be seen that addition of stabilizers and
compaction energy increased the compactability of the soil speci-
men. Peat soil treated with 100% OPC shows the highest increased
OMC which is 41.92%, while peat treated with 100% FA shows the
lowest value of optimum moisture content which is 29.16%. In ad-
dition, peat with 80%FA and 20%OPC has highest value of MDD
which is 17.11 kN/m3.

Figure 3: Compaction curves of peat with various types of

additives

Table 2: Comparison of standard proctor test results

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5 Conclusion
As the conclusion, usage of fly ash and oil palm shell activated
carbon as additives and replacement of ordinary Portland cement
in soil stabilization enhanced the overall characteristics of peat soil
and increased the construction possibility on peat land. It has been
observed that peat soil added with fly ash and oil palm shell acti-
vated carbon and 20% of ordinary Portland cement showed some re-
duction compared to peat stabilized with 100% fly ash. Peat added
with fly ash showed the highest maximum dry density and low op-
timum moisture content for their compaction behavior. It has been
proved that addition of fly ash into peat soil noticeably improved
the maximum dry density of treated peat. It clearly showed that
peat soil treated with fly ash improved a lot in term of their per-
meability if compared to peat soil treated with ordinary Portland
cement alone.
Acknowledgement: This research was carried out using
the facilities at the Faculty of Civil Engineering, UiTM Sarawak
and supported by a grant from the Ministry of Higher Educa-
tion (MOHE) Malaysia, under the Research Acculturation Grant
Scheme (RAGS): 600-RMI/RAGS 5/3 (226/2014).

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