The rapid expansion of thermal power sector in India, posed one of the biggest technological challenges of increasing the utilization of coal ashes generated in huge quantities, as a byproduct. Efforts were made in the present study to investigate the prospects of improvement of pond ash when reinforced with geosynthetics. Monotonic load tests were performed on a compacted pond ash reinforced with four chosen geosynthetics. The results indicated a considerable improvement in bearing capacity of pond ash, when reinforced. The present study provided an insight in to the mechanism and clearly brought out the relative roles of interface friction and the tensile modulus of the geosynthetics on the reinforcement function. The most beneficial effect was observed when the reinforcement was placed at a depth equal to half the width of the model footing. The surcharge was found to enhance the monotonic response of the reinforced pond ash.
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