Major infrastructure projects require significant amount of natural materials, often followed by the soft soil stabilization using hydraulic binders. This paper presents the results of a laboratory study of alternative waste materials (fly ash and slag) that can be used for earthworks. Results of high plasticity clay stabilization using fly ash from Serbian power plants are presented in the first part. In the second part of the paper, engineering properties of ash and ash-slag mixtures are discussed with the emphasis on the application in road subgrade and embankment construction. Physical and mechanical properties were determined via following laboratory tests: Specific gravity, grain size distribution, the moisture–density relationship (Proctor compaction test), unconfined compressive strength (UCS), oedometer and swell tests, direct shear and the California bearing ratio (CBR). The results indicate the positive effects of the clay stabilization using fly ash, in terms of increasing strength and stiffness and reducing expansivity. Fly ashes and ash-slag mixtures have also comparable mechanical properties with sands, which in combination with multiple other benefits (lower energy consumption and CO₂ emission, saving of natural materials and smaller waste landfill areas), make them suitable fill materials for embankments, especially considering the necessity for sustainable development.

Approximately 7 million tons of fly ash and slag are produced in thermal power plants in Serbia every year, only 3% of which is used in the cement industry. About 300 million tons of the ash-slag mixture are disposed in landfills, occupying an area of approximately 1600 hectares and generating environmental issues. Fly ash from Serbian power plants has pozzolanic properties and due to low concentration of calcium compounds (less than 10% CaO), they do not have self-cementing properties. According to the ASTM C618-15, this ash is from class F. According to the European Standard EN 197-1:2011, this ash is siliceous (type V) ash. From April 2014 to May 2015, an investigation of engineering properties of fly ash and mixtures of fly ash and slag from landfill (without or with binders of cement/lime) was conducted at the Laboratory of Soil Mechanics at the Faculty of Civil Engineering of the University of Belgrade (Serbia) and at the Institute for Testing of Materials – IMS Institute in Belgrade. The laboratory test results were showed in the study ‘Utilization of fly ash and slag produced in the TPP JP EPS thermal power plants for construction of railways’. Four kinds of waste materials from Serbian power plants were laboratory tested: (a) an ash-slag mixture from landfills at the ‘Nikola Tesla A’ thermal power plant; (b) fly ash from silos in the ‘Nikola Tesla B’ thermal power plant; (c) an ash-slag mixture from landfills at the ‘Kostolac A’ and ‘Kostolac B’ thermal power plants and ‘Srednje kostolačko ostrvo’ landfill; (d) fly ash from the ‘Kostolac’ thermal power plant. The following physical and mechanical properties of ash and mixtures were investigated: grain size distribution, Atterberg limits, specific gravity, moisture-density relationship, shear strength parameters in terms of effective stresses, California Bearing Ratio (CBR), and deformation parameters. The paper presents the results of laboratory tests of the materials with and without binders, and based on the laboratory results and previous research, the paper presents possibilities of using fly ash and slag for the construction of railway substructure in the planned construction and reconstruction of railway network in Serbia. The obtained results indicate that tested fly ash and ash-slag mixture have met the technical requirements and that they have the potential to be used in railway substructure.

Marine and harbor structures, wind turbines, bridges, offshore platforms, industrial chimneys, retaining structures etc. can be subjected to significant lateral loads from various sources. Appropriate assessment of the foundations capacity of these structures is thus necessary, especially when these structures are supported by pile groups. The pile group interaction effects under lateral loading have been investigated intensively in past decades, and the most of the conducted studies have considered lateral loading that acts along one of the two orthogonal directions, parallel to the edge of pile group. However, because of the stochastic nature of its source, the horizontal loading on the pile group may have arbitrary direction. The number of studies dealing with the pile groups under arbitrary loading is very limited. The aim of this paper is to investigate the influence of the arbitrary lateral loading on the pile group response, in order to improve (extend) the current design approach for laterally loaded pile groups. Free head, flexible bored piles in sand were analyzed through the extensive numerical study. The main hypothesis of the research is that some critical pile group configurations, loading directions, and soil conditions exist, which can lead to the unsafe structural design. Critical pile positions inside the commonly used pile group configurations are identified with respect to loading directions. The influence of different soil conditions was discussed.

This paper investigates the possibility of the application of the HArdening State Parameter (HASP) constitutive model for numerical modelling of overconsolidated soft clay under embankment loading. The HASP constitutive model is a critical state soil model with a combined hardening rule that uses a state parameter to determine the dilatancy of overconsolidated clay. The model overcomes some shortcomings of the Modified Cam Clay (MCC) model in the prediction of overconsolidated clay’s behavior, while preserving the simplicity and the same set of five parameters. The HASP model was implemented in finite element software. In order to verify the applicability of the model in predicting the behavior of soft overconsolidated clay due to embankment loading, two examples reported in the literature are analyzed. The numerical predictions of the HASP model are compared with the field measurements of ground settlements and pore water pressures, and with the MCC model’s predictions. The results indicate that the HASP model predicts the development of the settlements of the overconsolidated soft clay deposits with a high accuracy from an engineering point of view. There are certain deviations from the field measurements in predicting the pore pressure development, which is often observed for other models as well. For the embankment settlement assessment, as important serviceability issue, the HASP model has an advantage over more complex models that require a large number of parameters. Since the parameters of the HASP model are obtained from standard laboratory tests, it can be easily applied for routine geotechnical analyses.