Characterization of Fly ash and Ground Granulated Blast Slag for Soil Stabilization Application Using Geopolymerization Method

Abstract Clay soils provide several challenges for geotechnical and civil engineers. This type of soils has a low strength, high plasticity and can cause damage to the road pavement such as crack and soil strength reduction. Thus, require stabilization method. Continue of research and investigations have been done to find other alternative in soil stabilization that eco-friendly. Geopolymer, one of the alterative eco-friendly soil stabilization method offering small swelling potential and outstanding adhesion to soil properties, which could be an effective soil stabilizer. Geopolymer is a reaction that chemically integrates minerals that involves naturally occurring silicoaluminates sources. The geopolymer synthetized from soil, fly ash, ground granulated blast slag and an alkaline solution made from sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and sodium silicate (Na2SiO3). The characterization testing includes physical properties, X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) to examine the physical properties, elemental chemical composition, mineralogical properties, microstructure, and bonding chemical of the raw material, respectively. Based on the characterization result, the soil, fly ash and ground granulated blast slag consists mainly of silica (SiO2) and alumina (Al2O3) which make it suitable to be used as raw materials for geopolymer formation. This paper presents a characterization analysis of soil, fly ash and ground granulated blast slag as raw materials for soil stabilization application using geopolymerization method.