Eighth International Conference on The Constructed Environment

Abstract

Weak subgrade soils are generally stabilized to increase their strength and durability or to prevent erosion and dust formation in soils. For the designed life of an engineering project, soil improvement is of major concern in construction activities due to rapid growth of urbanization and industrialisation. This study envisages the effect of terrasil (1%, 2%, and 3% by weight of water) and banana fibres (up to 1% by weight of dry soil) mixed in different proportion on CBR values, unconfined compressive strength and durability of the soil. The study deals with the influence of fibers, varying in length (20 mm, 30mm, 40mm, and 50mm) and percentage (0.25 %, 0.50 %, 0.75 %, and 1.0 %) added to the soil samples. The study determines the reinforcing effect of randomly distributed fibres and terrasil chemical on the compaction characteristics, penetration resistance, unconfined compressive strength, and durability of soils. The addition of fibre and terrasil results in the improvement of soil subgrade characteristics in terms of CBR, UCS, and durability measures. The combination of 3% terrasil and 0.5% banana fibre (once keeping aspect ratio as 160) produces the best results and significant improvement in the soil subgrade characteristics than any other combination. It can be concluded that a combination of banana fiber and terrasil has a mutual effect on both the chemical stabilized soil and fiber reinforced soil. Therefore, it can be adopted successfully for the improvement of soil subgrade characteristics and will also reduce pavement crust thickness.