Mechanical Improvement of Clayey Soil Using Waste Fibers

There are various methods to improve the conditions of problematic soils. These methods are either currently being developed or already updated. One of them is changing the mechanical properties of the soil through adding materials that can significantly contribute to the soil improvement. Mixing these materials with the soil not only compensates for its weaknesses but also leads to the soil conditions as desired or expected from the engineering point of view. This change must surely be made by taking into account executive and economic aspects as well as additives variety, environment, and soil mechanics. Waste materials are one of the most impotant additives that can provide an appropriate response to all these considerations. Such materials not only have mechanical properties very close to those of their main materials but are also economically almost free and environmentally friendly. In line with the latter merit, they help the sustainable development of the environment in the earliest requirement. This paper aims at the effect of waste materials on soil improvement. An experiment was conducted in this regard. As the results showed, adding waste fibers to clayey soil by the amount of 1.5 wt% of the soil, as the optimum percentage, makes CBR increase for 2.9 times.

Keywords:

Soil improvement , Problematic soil , Waste materials , Sustainable environment , CBR.