Geoenvironmental aspects of coal refuse-fly ash blends
<p>The separate land disposal of coal refuse and fly ash presents difficulties throughout the Appalachian region, both in terms of disposal costs per acre and in terms of its potential environmental impacts on soil, ground water, revegetation, and slope stability. The purpose of this study was...
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| Format: | Others |
| Language: | en |
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Virginia Tech
2014
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10919/46095 http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-12042009-020142/ |
| Summary: | <p>The separate land disposal of coal refuse and fly ash presents difficulties throughout
the Appalachian region, both in terms of disposal costs per acre and in terms of its potential
environmental impacts on soil, ground water, revegetation, and slope stability. The purpose
of this study was to determine how fly ash addition to coal refuse would impact on certain
geotechnical properties of the refuse disposal piles, and whether the refuse-fly ash blends
would be suitable as co-disposed materials. Accordingly, the compaction, permeability and
shear strength characteristics of the refuse-fly ash blends were experimentally determined for
varying fly ash percentages. The compaction test results indicated that, with increasing fly
ash, the maximum dry density of these blends marginally decreased. The permeability test
results showed that the permeability of the test specimens progressively decreased with the
increase in fly ash. The shear strength results demonstrated that the addition of fly ash did
not significantly influence the shear strength of the refuse. The critical factor of safety
determined during slope stability analysis revealed that the tested slope geometries were
stable for long term, drained conditions (using the STABGM computer program). The volume change analysis determined that there was a minimal expansion in the volume of
refuse when it was blended with fly ash. However, it may be noted that all the stated results
depend on a number offactors, including the nature of the refuse and fly ash used. Therefore,
these findings would be specific to bulk blends of coal refuse and fly ash only. In general,
this study indicates that fly ash can be beneficially reused with respect to the geotechnical
properties evaluated. Co-disposal of fly ash and coal refuse may be a reasonable alternative
to present disposal methods. === Master of Science |
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