Stabilization of Peat soil using Ordinary Portland Cement and Crushed Seashells

Abstract In the fields of environmental and civil engineering, peat soil is regarded as one of the most troublesome types of soil in the world. Furthermore, the peat soil is a high compressible material. This paper discussed about stabilization of the peat soil using an ordinary portland cement and crushed seashells which are to determine the physical properties of the peat soil such as moisture content, specific gravity, liquid limit and organic content and to analyse engineering properties through unconfined compressive strength and scanning electron microscope. The samples were prepared with various ratio of mixture whereas 40% cement 20% mixed seashell (C40CS20), 30% cement 30% mixed seashell (C30CS30) 50% cement 10% mixed seashell (C50MS10) with curing day 14 and 28 days. From the observation, it was found that C40MS20 achieved the highest unconfined compressive strength compared to C30MS30 and C50MS10 which was 67.79 kN/m2 at 28 curing days. Meanwhile, the untreated peat soil had very low compressive strength which was only 18.29 kN/m 2 . Therefore, the ordinary portland cement and the mixed seashell was proved to have significant effect in reaching moderate compressive strength in peat soil.