Assessment of Coir Fiber and Coir Mats Over Poor Subgrade for Rural Roads
摘要
The current study aims to assess the performance of coir fiber and mats in weak soil subgrade. It was majorly noticed in coastal areas and river basins, which are associated with weak subgrade soil. Further, it causes major distress in pavement structures like rutting, and fatigue cracks due to its poor strength. To solve this issue in pavement aspects many conventional stabilization techniques were adopted and addressed their benefits. The current study emphasizes using coir geotextiles with weak soil associated in coastal areas using the coir geotextile fiber at variable percentages and coir geotextile mats. In this study, an attempt is made in the laboratory to enhance the reinforcement characteristics of weak subgrade soil by adding various percentages of coir fiber and coir mats subjected to Unconfined Compressive Strength (UCS) and traffic loading conditions respectively. Further, the study focuses on the improvement of UCS characteristics with the addition of cement at 5%. The coir geotextile mats were evaluated using the fabricated mold under the Wheel Tracking Test (WTT) machine. The study results indicate that adding 5% of cement with 1% of coir fiber is evident in the higher UCS, and the use of coir mats under the WTT machine shows better reinforcement performance than the mix with coir fiber and cement. Further, the study emphasizes the appropriate position of coir geotextile mats to enhance coastal area road construction.