UNCONFINED COMPRESSIVE STRENGTH OF CEMENT STABILIZED PEAT WITH RUBBER CHIPS AND SAND FILLER MIXED AT VARIOUS WATER TO ADDITIVE RATIO

Peat is known to be a very problematic soil as it has high natural moisture content, high compressibility and low shear strength, high degree of spatial variability and high permeability which requires special cnsiderations for construction over them. In Malaysia, peat soils cover 2,457,730 ha (7.45%) of Malaysia’s total land area which is 32,975,800 ha. Due to the geotechnical problems of peat soil, previous researchers have found several methods to improve the behaviour of peat soil by using chemical stabilization method. In this study, peat samples were collected from Kampung Meranek, Kota Samarahan, Sarawak and was classified under H8 (Sapric Peat) according to Von Post Humification scale. The samples were mixed at its natural moisture content with the addition of cement, constant percentage of rubber chips and constant percentage of siliceous sand. A suitable mixing water- additive ratio of 2.0, 2.5 and 3.0 had been chosen to determine the optimum strength of peat soil and the samples were cured at a curing period of 7, 14 and 28 days respectively. After those curing periods, the compressive strength of samples were obtained by conducting unconfined compressive strength (UCS) test in the laboratory. The results of strength gained that had been obtained from this study indicated that wateradditive ratio of 2.0 is the optimum ratio as it achieved the highest maximum strength at curing period of 28 days. This study had proven that the compressive strength of peat increases with the inclusion of cement, rubber chips and sand at a specific wateradditive ratio through curing period