Performance of Fiber Reinforced Clayey Soil

Kalpana Vinesh Maheshwari

M.E.(Geotech) Ph.D. Scholar, Applied Mechanics Department, S.V. National Institute of Technology, Surat. e-mail: ges_adi@yahoo.com

Atul K. Desai and Chandresh H. Solanki

Associate Professors, Applied Mechanics Department, S.V. National Institute of Technology, Surat. e-mail: dip1985@yahoo.com; chandresh1968@yahoo.co.in

ABSTRACT
Geotechnical engineers often encounter problems in designing foundations of structures on highly compressible clayey soil due to its poor bearing capacity, low shearing strength, etc. Soil reinforcement is an effective and reliable technique for improving strength and stability of soils. Several studies have been conducted to investigate the influence of randomly oriented discrete inclusions (fibres, mesh elements, waste material e.g. plastic strips, tire chips, etc.) on the highly compressible clayey soils. Most of these studies were conducted on small size samples in triaxial, C.B.R., unconfined compression and direct shear tests. So in the present study a series of small scale test i.e. triaxial tests and consolidation tests and large samples tests i.e. laboratory model tests on square footings supported on highly compressible clayey soil reinforced with randomly distributed polyester fibre were conducted in order to compare the results with those obtained from unreinforced soil and with each other. In this study amount of 12 mm polyester fibres mixed with highly compressible clayey soil varies from 0 to 1 %. The results of load settlement curve of different sizes of square footing reinforced with various amount of fibres and for various depths of fibres were recorded. The bearing capacity is also calculated in term of bearing capacity ratio. The results of model footing tests were checked by theoretical bearing capacity also. The results indicated that reinforcement of highly compressible clayey soil with randomly distributed fibres caused an increase in the ultimate bearing capacity and decrease in settlement at the ultimate load.

KEYWORDS:
settlement

Fiber reinforced clayey soil, model footing test, ultimate bearing

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INTRODUCTION
With urbanization and mordernization at its peak, less amount of land is available for construction. Everywhere land is being utilized for various structures from an ordinary house to sky scrappers, from bridges to airports. Owing to this, construction of structures these days, is being carried on land having weak or soft soil. Now, stability of any structure depends on the properties of soil. Using land having soft soil for construction leads to various ground improvement techniques such as soil stabilization and reinforcement. Most of the soil available are such that they have good compressive strength adequate shear strength but weak in tension/ poor tensile strength. To overcome the same, many researchers have concentrated their studies on the development of new such materials, through the elaboration of composites. In the case of geotechnical engineering the idea of inserting fibrous materials in a soil mass in order to improve its mechnical behaviour has become very popular. The concept of earth reinforcement is an ancient technique and demonstrated abundanty in nature by animals, birds and the action of tree roots. These reinforcement resists tensile stress developed within the soil mass thereby restricting shear failure. Reinforcement intracts with the soil through friction and adhesion. The practicing engineers are employing this technique for stabilization of thin soil layers, reparing failed slopes, soil strengthing around the footings and earth retaining structures. The enclusion of randomly distributed discrete fiber increases strength parameters of the soil as in case of reinforced concrete construction. Foundation is a part of structure which transmits load of super structure to the sub soil. Geotechnical engineers face various problems while designing the foundations on highly compressible clayey soil due to poor bearing capacity and excessive settelment. Thus bearing capacity is one of the important ascpect of soil engineering. The majority of currently published literature about randomly oriented fiber reinforcement deals with the reinforcement of cohessionless or granular soils. Most of these studies were conducted on small size samples in C.B.R., unconfined compression, triaxial and direct shear tests (Andersland and Khattak, 1979: Hoare 1979: Gray and Ohashi, 1983; Maher and Gray,1990; Charan, 1985; Michalowski and Zhao, 1960; Michalowski and Cermak, 2003; Kaniraj and Havangi, 2001; Kaniraj and Gayatri, 2003; Gosavi et al., 2004, Yetimoglu et al., 2005). Very few studies have been reported on large sample under model footing test on cohesionless soils (Gupta, 2008: Ameta, 2009). Only limited information has been reported on the use of randomly distributed discrete fibers for highly compressible clayey soil. Thus an experimental programme to study the effect of randomly distributed fibers on highly compressible clayey soil using the triaxial shear test on small sample size and model footing test on large sample has been undertaken.

Material Used for Investigation

For the present study soil samples of blackish colour classified as CH according to Unified Soil Classification System were used. The Engineering properties of soil are listed in Table 1.

Vol. 16 [2011], Bund. J Table 1: Engineering Properties of Clayey Soil Used Properties Specific Gravity Grain Size Analysis Gravel, % Sand, % Silt, % Clay, % Consistency Limit Liquid Limit, % Plastic Limit, % Plasticity Index, % Shrinkage Limit, % IS Classification Compaction Study (Standard Compaction Test) Maximum Dry Density, kN/m3 Optimum Moisture Content, % 16.50 16.23 52.9 27.5 25.4 23.5 CH 1 8 66 25

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Sr No. 1 2 i) ii) iii) iv) 3 i) ii) iii) iv) 5 6 i) ii)

Value 2.444

Polyester fibers of size 12mm used in this investigation were provided by Relience Industries Limited. The product specifications and photograph of the polyester fibers are given in Table 2 and Figure 1. Due to triangular cross section polyester fibers are better bonded together with clay particle. Table 2: Physical and Engineering Properties of Fibers Used Type Polyester Cut Length 12.1 mm Cross-section Triangular Diameter 30-40 m Tensile Elongation >100% Specific Gravity 1.34 1.39 Tensile Strength 400-600 N/m2 Colour Almost Colorless

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Figure 1: Photograph showing loose 12mm polyester fibers

Model Footing Test

Model footing tests on the fiber reinforced soil were conducted to investigate the pressure settlement behavior of randomly distributed fiber reinforced soil and effect of fiber content on the bearing capacity of the randomly distributed fiber reinforced soil. All the tests were conducted on the square footing of size 100 mm in square tank of size 750 mm x 750 mm x 600 mm (deep). Model footing was made of cast iron to have perfect rigidity and was machined to proper dimensions. The base of the footing was made rough on contact face by pasting emery paper of extra fine grade, to simulate the roughness of actual footings. The tank was made of sufficient thickness to withstand lateral expansion under loads. The dimensions of tank were kept more than five times the width of footing tested so that it should not include boundary effects. A total of ten model footing tests were performed under vertical load. The parameters used in this test are percentage of fiber reinforcement and depth of placement of fiber reinforced clay as listed in the Table 3, where B is the width of the model footing tested. Table 3: Parameters of Test Programme Size of Footing 100 mm X 100 mm Percentage of Polyester Fiber 0.25%, 0.50%, 1.0% (by weight of clay layer ) Reinforcement Depth of Fiber Reinforced Soil B/4 = 25mm, B/2 = 50mm, B = 100mm

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For achieving uniformity, the density and moisture content of unreinforced and fiber reinforced soil were kept constant equal to 16.50 kN/m3 and 16.23 % throughout the test program, thought MDD and OMC were different for unreinforced and fiber reinforced soil. Polyester fiber was mixed manually in clay, till the fiber gets mixed homogeneously with clay. The inside of the tank was marked at every ten cm. The unreinforced and then the fiber reinforced clay were placed in tank in layers of 50mm thickness and each layer was compacted to attain the required density and height. Each layer was properly compacted with tamper having circular base of 150 mm diameter to give required density of 16.50 kN/m3. After filling the tank, the top surface of clay was leveled. The footing was placed in the middle of the tank and after removing 50mm top layer for achieving proper compaction. The level of the footing was checked by sprit level to avoid eccentric loading. The footing was placed over a fine sand layer of thickness 3mm and the center of the plate was coincide with the center of reaction beam, with the help of plumb bob. A ball and socket arrangement was inserted on the footing to keep the direction of the load vertical throughout the test. The proving ring of 50 kN capacity was placed over socket for measuring the load. The hydraulic jack was placed over the proving ring with the loading column in between the jack and reaction beam so as to transfer the load to the plate. The foundation settlement was measured by two dial gauges, each on either side of footing, resting on two magnetic bases. A seating load of 7 kN/m2 was applied and released after 30 minutes before starting the test. The load was applied and increased an increment of about one tenth of the estimated ultimate load. The settlement was observed for each increment of load after an interval of 1, 2.25, 4, 6.25, 9, 16, and 25min and thereafter hourly intervals to the nearest 0.01 mm. The load increment was applied when the rate of settlement reduced to 0.01 mm per hour. From the analogy of pressure bulb, it is inferred that the soil is significantly affected to a depth of 2 to 2.5 times the width of footing so that the soil in tank was removed to a depth more than five times the size of the footing before starting a new test. A load settlement curves were plotted out to arithmetic scale for un reinforced as well for fiber reinforced soils. In the load settlement curve the failure point was not well defined hence settlement was plotted as abscissa against corresponding load intensities as ordinate, both to logarithmic scale. From logarithmic curves the soil bearing capacity (SBC) for unreinforced and fiber reinforced soils were calculated. Soil bearing pressures (SBP) for both the soils are obtained from the following equation. = where B = size of the footing in m, Bp = size of the test plate (model footing) in m = 0.10 m, Sp = settlement of test plate (model footing) in m, and St = settlement of footing in m. (1)

Results and Discussion of Model Footing Test

Figure 2 and Figure 3 represent the load settlement curves plotted on arithmetic scale and logarithmic scale respectively for unreinforced soil. From Figure 3 and equation 1, SBC and SBP

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were found to be 62.4 kN/m2 and 160 kN/m2 respectively for unreinforced soil. Similarly load settlement curves for fiber reinforced soils for various combinations of fiber content and depth of fiber reinforced soil are shown from Figure 4 to Figure 9. The SBC and SBP for fiber reinforced soils are presented in Table 4 and from Figure 10 to Figure 12. The least of SBC & SBP shall be considered as allowable bearing capacity in the designing. For calculating the SBP, size of footing and allowable settlement is taken as 1.5m X 1.5m and 40mm respectively.
Load in kN/m 2
0 0 2 100 200 300 400 500

Settlement in mm

4 6 8 10 12 14 16

Figure 2: Load settlement curve for unreinforced clay

Plastic Settlement

100

Yield Stress

Load in kN 2 /m

Elastic Settlement

1 0.1 1 10 100

Settelement in mm

Figure 3: Load settlement curve for unreinforced clay on logarithmic scale

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Load (kN)
0 0 2 4 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Settlement (mm)

6 8 10
Unreinfo rced clay

12 14 16

Clay + 25 mm fiber depth Clay + 50 mm fiber depth Clay + 1 mm fiber 00 depth

Figure 4a: Load settlement curve for fiber reinforced soil with 0.25% fibers

0 0 2

Load (kN)
4 5

Settlement (mm)

4 6 8 10 12 14 16
Unreinfo rced clay Clay + 25 mm fiber depth Clay + 50 mm fiber depth Clay + 1 mm fiber 00 d th

Figure 4b: Load settlement curve for fiber reinforced soil with 0.50% fibers

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Load (kN)
0 0 2 4 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Settlement (mm)

6 8 10 12 14 16 Unreinforced clay
Clay + 25 m m fiber depth Clay + 50 m m fiber depth Clay + 100 m m fiber depth

Figure 5: Load settlement curve for fiber reinforced soil with 1.00% fibers

Load (kN)
0 0 2 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Settlement (mm)

4 6 8 10 12 14
Clay + 0.50% fiber Unreinfo rced clay Clay + 0.25% fiber

16

Clay + 1 % fiber .0

Figure 6: Load settlement curve for fiber reinforced soil with 25 mm depth of fiber reinforced soil

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Load (kN)
0 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
Clay + 1.% f iber Unreinf orced clay Clay + 0.25% f iber Clay + 0.50 % f iber

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Settlem ent (m ) m

Figure 7: Load settlement curve for fiber reinforced soil with 50 mm depth of fiber reinforced soil

Load (kN)
0 0 2 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Settlement (mm)

4 6 8 10 12 14 16
Unreinfo rced clay Clay + 0.25% fiber Clay + 0.50% fiber Clay + 1 % fiber .0

Figure 8: Load settlement curve for fiber reinforced soil with 100 mm depth of fiber reinforced soil

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280 240 200

2

Clay + 25 mm fiber depth

So il + 50 mm fiber depth

Safe Bearing Capacity, kN/m

So il +1 mm fiber depth 00

160 120 80 40 0 0 0.25 0.5 0.75 1 1.25 1.5

Fiber Content %
Figure 9: Safe bearing capacity v/s fiber content for various fiber depths

Clay + 0.25% fiber co ntent

280
2 Safe Bearing Capacity, kN/m

Clay + 0.50% fiber co ntent

240 200 160 120 80 40 0 0 25 50 75 100 125

Clay + 1 .0% fiber co ntent

Fiber Depth, mm

Figure 10: Safe bearing capacity v/s fiber depth for various fiber contents

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Safe Bearing Pressure, kN/m 2

320

Clay + 1 mm 00 fiber depth Clay + 50 mm fiber

240

160

80

0 0 0.25 0.5 0.75 1 1.25 1.5

Fiber Content %

Figure 11: Safe bearing pressure v/s fiber content for various fiber depths

Safe Bearing Pressure, kN/m 2

400 320

240 160

Clay + 0.25% fiber co ntent Clay + 0.50% fiber co ntent

80
Clay + 1 .0% fiber co ntent

0 0 25 50 75 100 125

Fiber Depth, mm

Figure 12: Safe bearing pressure v/s fiber depth for various fiber contents

Vol. 16 [2011], Bund. J Table 4: Summary of SBC and SBP

Fiber Content (%) 0.25 0.50 1.00

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Depth of Fiber Reinforced Soil in mm B/4 (25 mm) B/2 (50 mm) B (100 mm) SBP SBC SBP SBC SBP SBC (kN/m2) (kN/m2) (kN/m2) (kN/m2) (kN/m2) (kN/m2) 190 240 172 210 130 170 200 330 140 310 220 340 152 290 140 270 124.4 220

Bearing Capacity Ratio

The bearing capacity ratio (BCR) is non dimensional term is defined as, BCR = Bearing capacity of fiber reinforced soil Bearing capacity of unreinforced soil

(2)

Table 5 shows bearing capacity ratio (BCR) calculated at ultimate bearing capacity for fiber reinforced clay.

Table 5: Summary of Bearing Capacity Ratio

Fiber Content (%) 0.25 0.50 1.00 Depth of Fiber Reinforced Soil Depth in mm B/4 (25 mm) B/2 (50 mm) B (100 mm) BCR BCR BCR 3.04 2.76 2.08 3.21 2.44 3.53 2.44 2.44 1.99

The load settlement curve for fiber reinforced clay, when depth of fiber reinforced soil is kept 25mm (B/4) is above than that of the unreinforced clay and when the depth is kept 50mm (B/2) and 100mm (B) as shown in Figure 4 to 6. Similarly Figure 7 to 9 shows that the load settlement curve of fiber reinforced soil, when fiber content taken as 0.50% is above than that of the unreinforced clay and when fiber content kept as 0.25% and 1.00%. Thus SBC and SBP both are maximum at 0.50% fiber content and for 25mm depth of fiber reinforced soil, which is shown in Figure 10 to 12. The SBC and SBP for unreinforced clay is 160 kN/m2 and 62.4 kN/m2 respectively which increase to 340 kN/m2 to 220 kN/m2 for fiber reinforced clay for 0.50% fiber content and 25mm depth of fiber reinforced soil. The maximum bearing capacity ratio was observed to be 3.53 for 0.50% fiber content and 50mm depth of fiber reinforced soil.

Triaxial Test
A series of unconsolidated undrained triaxial compression tests on the unreinforced and fiber reinforced highly compressible clay were conducted to determine the effect of fiber on shear strength characteristics of soil. All the tests were done at axial stain rate of 1.25 mm/min. The fibers were mixed thoroughly by hand using rubber gloves in to the dry soil to achieve a fairly uniform mix. The samples were prepared at MDD and OMC for all the tests in triaxial split mold in three equal layers. A total of 15 triaxial tests were conducted to study the influence of fiber content, confining pressure on the strength of fiber reinforced soil. Three tests were conducted on unreinforced clay at confining pressure (CP) of 50 kN/m2, 100 kN/m2 & 150 kN/m2, and

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remaining twelve tests were conducted with fiber content 0.2%, 0.5%, 1.0% & 1.5% with confining pressure (CP) of 50 kN/m2, 100 kN/m2 & 150 kN/m2.

Results and Discussion of Triaxial Test

Figure13, 14 and 15 represent axial strain versus deviator stress for unreinforced and fiber reinforced clay with fiber content 0.2% to 1.5% for cell pressure (CP) of 50kN/m2, 100kN/m2 & 150kN/ m2 respectively. Table 6 shows the effect of fiber content on the major principal stress at failure (1f). Figure 13 to 15 show that peak shear stress increases with increase in fiber content up to 0.5 %, after that 1.0 % fiber content peak shear stress decreases. Table 6 indicates that major principal stress at failure of unreinforced clay is more than that of the fiber reinforced clay. The c and values obtained from the Mohr circles are presented in Table 7. The c and values for unreinforced clay were found 59 kN/m2 and 5.500. There is slight increase in c - value with increase in fiber content, but value increase remarkably with increase in fiber content up to 0.5% then at 1.0% both c and value decreases.
Unreinfo rced Clay

400

Clay + 0.2 % fiber Clay + 0.5 % fiber Clay + 1 fiber .0%

Deviator Stress kN/m 2

300

Clay + 1 fiber .5%

200

100

0 0.00

0.02

0.04

0.06

0.08

0.10

0.12

Axial Strain
Figure 13: Stress strain curve for unreinforced and fiber reinforced soil for cell pressure of 50 kN/m2

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500

Deviator Stress kN/m 2

400

300
Unreinforced Clay Clay + 0.2 % fiber Clay + 0.5% fiber Clay + 1 FIber .0%

200

100
Clay + 1 fiber .5%

0 0.00

0.02

0.04

0.06

0.08

0.10

0.12

0.14

0.16

Axial Strain

Figure 14: Stress strain curve for unreinforced and fiber reinforced soil for cell pressure of 100 kN/m2

600

Deviator Stress kN/m 2

500 400 300 200 100

Unreinforced Clay Clay + 0.2% fiber Clay + 0.5 % fiber Clay + 1 fiber .0% Clay + 1 fiber .5% 0 0.00 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.10 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.20

Axial Strain
Figure 15: Stress strain curve for unreinforced and fiber reinforced soil for cell pressure of 150 kN/m2

Vol. 16 [2011], Bund. J Table 6: Effect of Fiber Content on Failure Principal Stress
Fiber Content (%) 0.00 Cell Pressure 3 (kN/m2) 50 100 150 50 100 150 50 100 150 50 100 150 50 100 150 Failure Principal Stress 1f (kN/m2) 172 274 336 293 373 467 388 507 638 313 410 547 219 320 410

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0.20

0.50

1.00

1.50

Table 7: Effect of Fiber Content on the shear strength parameters

Fiber Content (%) 0.00 0.20 0.50 1.00 1.50 Cohesion C (kN/m2) 59 70 76 64 62 Angle of Internal Friction (degree) 5.500 18.650 26.580 23.650 13.690

Consolidation Test
Consolidation test was carried out on unreinforced soil in order to determine the settlement characteristics of soil.

Results of Consolidation Test

The void ratio versus log (pressure) curve for unreinforced clay is plotted and from that the slope of the straight line portion (compression index) is found to be 0.234.

Theoretical Bearing Capacity

As per IS 6403 -1981 bearing capacity of isolated square column of size 1.5m X 1.5m at a depth of 1.5m was computed as 653.6 kN/m2 & 261.4kN/m2 respectively for unreinforced and fiber reinforced soil. At this SBC settlement is more than allowable settlement of 40mm. So as per IS 8009 (Part 1) 1976 from the equation of total settlement for the allowable settlement of 40mm, Safe Bearing Pressure (SBP) for unreinforced clay was calculated as 62.4 kN/m2. Hence in the design allowable SBC was considered as 62.4 kN/m2, which matches with SBC obtained from the model footing result. Thus good correlation is found between model footing results and theoretical results.

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CONCLUSION
There is significant increase in bearing capacity of highly compressible clayey soil with the inclusion polyester fibers. The SBC and SBP both increase with increase in fiber content up to 0.50% and then it decrease with further inclusion of fibers. The SBC and SBP are maximum at 0.50% fiber content having 25 mm depth of fiber reinforced soil (B/4). Thus though the soil is affected to a significant depth of 2 to 2.5 times the width of footing, there is no need to putting the fiber reinforced soil throughout this depth. Only one fourth of width of footing (B/4) is sufficient for increasing the SBC. The SBC and SBP for unreinforced clay is 62.4 t/m2 & 160 kN/m2 which increases to 220 kN/m2 & 310 kN/m2 respectively for fiber reinforced clay with 0.50% fiber and 25 mm depth of fiber reinforced soil. Bearing capacity ratio for fiber reinforced soil was observed 3.53 for 0.50% fiber content with 25 mm fiber depth. The c and values for unreinforced clay were found 59 kN/m2 and 5.500. There is slight increase in c value with inclusion of fibers, but value increase remarkably with increase in fiber content up to 0.5%. At 1.0% fiber content both c and value decrease. The SBC found by model footing test is matching with theoretical SBC for unreinforced soil. Hence good correlation is obtained between the model footing results and theoretical results.

REFERENCES
1. Andersland, O. B. and Khattak, A. S. (1979) Shear Strength of Kaolinite / Fiber Soil Mixtures, Proc. Int. Conf. on Soil Reinforcement, Paris, France. 1, pp. 11-76. 2. Charan, H. D. (1995) Probabilistic Analysis of Randomly Distributed Fiber Reinforced Soil, Ph D Thesis, Dept. of CIvil Engg., I.I.T. Roorkee, India. 3. Gosavi, M., Patil, K. A., Mittal, S. and Saran, S. (2004) Improvement of Properties of Black Cotton Soil Subgrade through Synthetic Reinforcement, J. Institution of Engineers (India), Vol. 84, pp. 257-262. 4. Gray, D.H. and Oshashi, H. (1983) Mechanics of Fiber-reinforcement in Sand, JI. Geotech. Engg., ASCE, 109 (3), pp. 335-353. 5. Hoare, D. J. (1979) Laboratory Study of Granular Soils Reinforced with Randomly Oriented Discrete Fibers, Proc. Int. Conf. on Use of Fabrics in Geotech., Paris, France. 1, pp. 47-52. 6. Kaniraj, S. R. and Havanagi, V. G. (2001) Geotechnical Behavior of Fly Ash soil Mixtures, JI. of Geotextiles and Geomembranes, 21, pp. 123-149. 7. Kaniraj, S. R. and Havanagi, V. G. (2001) Behavior of Cement stabilized Fiberreinforced Fly Ashsoil Mixtures Geotech. Geoenv. Eng., ASCE, 127(7), pp. 574-584. 8. Maher, M. H. and Gray, D. H. (1990) Static Response Sands Reinforced with Randomly Distributed Fibers, JI. Geotech. Engg., ASCE, 116 (11), pp. 1661- 1677. 9. Michalowski, R. L. and Cermak, J. (2003) Triaxial Compression of Sand Reinforced with Fibers, J. Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engg., ASCE, 129 (2), pp. 125-136 10. Michalowski, R. L. and Zaho, H. (1996) Failure of Fiber reinforced Granular Soils, JI. Geotech. Engg., ASCE, 122 (3) , pp. 226-333. 11. Gupta, P. and Saran, S. (2008) Behaviour of Fiber Reinforced Sand in Different Test Conditions JI. Indian Geotechnical Journal, pp.272-282. 12. Ameta N K, Purohit D G M, Wayal A S. (2009) Behaviour of Square Footing on Dune Sand Reinforced with Nylon Fiber Intl J. of Geotechnical Engineering, pp 313-317.

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