Review on Suitability of Rice Husk Ash as Soil Stabilizer

Modern era is an era of sustainable development. Utilizing industrial waste for the development works is an essential principle of sustainable development. Around 70 million hectare area of central India has black cotton soil, so there is a deficiency of stable construction site in these areas. Making these sites suitable for construction activities is a challenging task for geotechnical engineers. India is the second largest rice producer in the world. Around 24 million tons of rice husk and 4.4 million tons of rice husk ash (RHA) are produced annually in India. The effective disposal of such huge quantity is cumbersome, and thus, their use in some other fields must be looked into. The use of RHA as a soil stabilizer not only intensifies the required soil properties but also provides an effective way of its safe disposal. RHA contains rich amount of silica which have capability to replace the exchangeable ions present in clay minerals, thus reducing the shrinkage and swelling behavior of black cotton soil. The present study describes the available knowledge on use of RHA in soil stabilization purposes. The effect of RHA on various index and engineering properties of soil is also discussed based on previous researches in this field.