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Keywords: Fiber reinforced soil, randomly distributed, Coir fiber, Cohesion, Angle of internal friction, Direct
shear testing, Water content.
Introduction:
Soil has been used as a construction material from using coating of fiber with Phenol and Bitumen
time immortal. Being poor in mechanical properties, it [Sivakumar Babu and Vasudevan (2008)].
has been putting challenges to civil engineers to
Shear strength is a term used in soil mechanics to
improve its properties depending upon the
describe the magnitude of the shear stress that a soil
requirement which varies from site to site. Recently,
can sustain. The shear resistance of soil is a result of
much work has been done on strength deformation
friction and interlocking of particles, as well as
behaviour of fiber reinforced soil and it has been
possibly cementation or bonding at particle contacts.
established beyond doubt that addition of fiber in soil
Due to interlocking, particulate soil material may
improves the overall engineering performance of soil.
expand or contract in volume as it is subject to shear
Among the notable properties improved are greater
strains. The shear strength of soil depends on the
extensibility, small loss of post peak strength, isotropy
effective stress, the drainage conditions, density of the
in strength and absence of planes of weakness. Fiber
particles, the rate of strain, and the direction of the
reinforced soil has been used in many countries in the
strain.
recent past and further research is in progress for
many hidden aspects of it. Fiber reinforced soil is The safety of any geotechnical construction is
effective in all types of soils (i.e. sand, silt and clay). dependent on the strength of the soil. If the soil fails,
Use of natural material such as Jute, coir, sisal and the structure founded on it can collapse.
bamboo, as reinforcing materials in soil is prevalent Understanding shear strength is the basis to analyze
for a long time and they are abundantly used in many soil stability problems like lateral pressure on earth
countries like India, Philippines, Bangladesh etc. The retaining structures, slope stability and bearing
main advantages of these materials are they are capacity of foundations.
locally available and are very cheap. They are
Soil derives its shear strength from two sources:
biodegradable and hence do not create disposal
cohesion between particles (stress independent
problem in environment. Processing of these materials
component) and frictional resistance between particles
into a usable form is an employment generation
(stress dependent component, measured in terms of
activity in rural areas of these countries. If these
angle of internal friction). Direct shear testing is
materials are used effectively, the rural economy can
oldest shear testing used to find out cohesion and
get uplift and also the cost of construction can be
angle of internal friction. Technique is very useful for
reduced, if the material use leads to beneficial effects
freely draining soils, and local soil is of this type.
in engineering construction. Studies have also shown
Addition of coir fiber (of given length and diameter)
that durability of natural fiber added can be improved
in randomly distributed form in soil affects its
cohesion and angle of internal friction value, both in
IJASGE 030414 Copyright 2014 BASHA RESEARCH CENTRE. All rights reserved
KAMALESH KUMAR, GADA VIVEK
the presence as well as in the absence of pore water. Table 1: Direct Shear Test Results on Coir Fiber
In the present paper, locally available coir fiber (of Reinforced Local Soil
given length and diameter) was randomly distributed Failure
Failure
and mixed in oven dry local soil at 0.5% fiber content. Failure shear Failure
shear
This fiber intermixed local dry soil was subjected to shear stress shear
Normal stress 2
direct shear testing at four different water contents to stress (kg/cm stress
stress (kg/cm2
observe the cohesion and angle of internal friction 2 (kg/cm2 ) (kg/cm2
(kg/cm ) (0%
variation under these conditions. ) (5% (8.63% ) (15%
) water
water water water
Literature Review: content
content) content content)
Gray and Ohashi (1983) conducted a series of direct )
)
shear tests on dry sand reinforced with different
synthetic, natural and metallic bers to evaluate the 0.1104
0.069 0.11663 0.129 0.1473
effect of parameters, such as ber orientation, ber 9
content, ber area ratios, and ber stiffness on the 0.098 0.135 0.14119 0.147 0.1596
shear strength. Based on the test results, Gray and 0.16574 0.18416
0.138 0.1596 0.171
Ohashi (1983) concluded that an increase in shear 5 2
strength is directly proportional to the ber area 0.2148 0.22099
0.2083 0.20871 0.2087
ratios. 5 4