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The high CO2 emissions associated with production of Portland cement and over-consumption of traditional stabilisers (cement and lime), requires viable, sustainable and economical alternative binder systems. Treating tropical expansive soil with metakaolin based geopolymer has not been widely investigated, and this research addresses that knowledge gap. Geopolymer is an alkali-activated binder with low calcium content. The major key influential factor for selecting metakaolin (also known as calcined kaolin) and alkali-activators (sodium silicate and sodium hydroxide) as geopolymer stabiliser, is due to local availability of kaolin, and alkali-activators can easily be sourced in the research location. In addition, it synthesis requires low: CO2 emissions; cost and energy consumption compared to traditional stabilisers.

This research is mainly focus on investigation of geotechnical properties of alkali-activated metakaolin stabilised tropical expansive black cotton soil as a subbase material. Series of laboratory test will be conducted according to British standard soil testing method and the results will be analysed with statistical analysis software (SAS) and validated using relevant literatures, and other related geotechnical software packages.