Replacing soil with waste materials offers significant opportunities for advancing geoenvironmental practices in the construction of large-scale geostructures. The present study investigates the viability of utilizing sugarcane bagasse, a massively produced agricultural waste material, as a partial replacement for soil and its potential to control soil liquefaction. Utilization of bagasse in large geostructures not only aids in the management of a significant volume of bagasse but also facilitates the conservation of natural soil resources. Experimental investigations were conducted through a series of isotropically consolidated, stress-controlled, undrained cyclic triaxial tests. Various volumetric proportions of bagasse to sand, extending up to 50:50 (bagasse: sand), were examined to evaluate the performance of the mix under different cyclic loading conditions. The study evaluates the cyclic strength, stiffness degradation, cycle retaining index, etc., for different bagasse sand mixes across the expected cyclic stresses corresponding to Indian seismic zones 3, 4, and 5. Variation of these properties with relative density has also been studied. Results indicate that the bagasse can effectively be utilized as a geomaterial to partially replace the soil in large proportions ranging from 19 % to 41 % without compromising the initial cyclic strength of the natural soil. Notably, at an optimal content of 30 %, the bagasse sand mix exhibits higher resistance to the accumulation of excess pore water pressure, maximizing its liquefaction resistance. Furthermore, the utilization of bagasse as a partial replacement for soil increased the cyclic degradation index within the suggested range of bagasse content.

Soil Liquefaction has been a major cause of damage to many Civil Engineering Structures like multi-storey buildings, storage tanks, bridges, etc. in seismically active areas during many past earthquakes. Therefore, it is essentially required to do Liquefaction Potential Analysis based on a detailed Geotechnical Investigation of a Site located in a seismically active zone and further suggest viable Liquefaction Mitigation Techniques for the Project concerned which may be a combination of more than one method using geotechnical fundamentals to produce an adequate solution for the concerned Site. A case study is being discussed and presented here wherein a combination of two most economical and easy to implement liquefaction mitigation techniques were recommended to be adopted at the proposed Seismic Zone IV site of India with a view that we could save our valuable available natural Mother Earth resources for our future generations with environmental sustainability as the prime focus. A combination of Dynamic Compaction and Soil Replacement at the top resulted in improved densification as well as converting a few liquefiable soil layers present to non-liquefiable ones, still leaving a few un-improved liquefiable layers at little shallow depths just below the ground level which made us to decide for geotechnical recommendations for the proposed Structure in favour of conventional footings with a rider to structurally stiffen the Structure to accommodate post-earthquake settlements, thus, avoiding deep pile foundation which would not have been cost-effective and could have used many available natural resources in the form of different Building Materials.