Coal based thermal power plant has created over 50,000 acres of ash ponds in India, with approximately 2500 acres of additional ponds created for a 500-MW power plant and is filled with ash up to 10 m in height within a period of 5 years. Presently, 160 MT of fly ash is generated every year and it is likely to increase up to 300 MT by 2016-17. In the process of sluicing and sedimentation of ash in the storage ponds considerable segregation of particles occurred resulting in formation of complex, heterogeneous, sedimentary profiles. The in situ water content of deposits typically varied from 10% to 110% and ultimate bearing capacity of not more than 95kN/m2.
Various ground improvement Techniques have been applied to improve the geotechnical characteristics of these lands and or to enhance storage capacity and or to make it suitable for construction purposes. Since construction of buildings or utilities on these lands by conventional methods is not possible because of low strength flyash forms a very soft ground and highly compressible due to high water content. Also ponding of the ash generally found to reduce its self-hardening or pozzolanic properties.
However, in most geotechnical projects, ground modification is needed to obtain a construction site that will meet the design requirements. For this reason, a need exists to develop an economical and practical methods may bring about improvement in the geotechnical properties of the ash deposit as a whole, converting it to a usable land can be utilized for a broad range of purposes, such as suburban housing, light commercial building, and utilities etc.