Determination of Characteristic Water Contents of Fibre-Reinforced Expansive Soils—A Fundamental Approach

Conventionally, liquid, plastic, and shrinkage limits are considered as plasticity characteristics of natural fine-grained soils. Different approaches to estimating liquid limits itself demonstrate that the concept of a liquid limit and the mechanism governing it are not the same Sridharan and Prakash (Proc Inst Civ Eng Geotech Eng 143:235–240, 2000 [1]). In the present experimental study, five natural fine-grained expansive soils having liquid limit range (50–100%) were used. The three characteristic water contents, i.e. it was feasible to calculate the free swell limit (WFS), setting limit (WSL), and shrinkage limit for plain and fibre-reinforced expansive soils for different percentages by adjusting the initial water content. There are relationships between starting and final water contents as well as sediment volume and liquid limit. The experimental study’s measurement of the equilibrium sediment volume shows good agreement with the established procedure for determining liquid limits. Using linear regression analysis, correlations were developed between index properties, plasticity characteristics with the compaction characteristics for varying water contents along the compaction curve for different energy levels.