Geotechnical Behaviour of Expansive Soil Reinforced with Fibre

Considered as one of the notorious soil category as of swelling, shrinkage and cracking behaviour eventually damaging civil engineering structures instigating wide-ranging difficulties for construction purpose. Over the years, lime treatment has been broadly used to reinforce the soil but then again it comes with the unscrupulous effects on the soil such as carbonation or sulphate attack. This paper intends to evaluate the effect of fibre reinforcement (coir and jute fibre) obtained from Jodhpur, Rajasthan, in improvement of geotechnical behaviour of the natural clayey soil mixed with sand along with comparison of two natural fibres in improving soil strength. The author performed direct (UCS) strength test on reinforced and unreinforced soil. Initial test was conducted on coir by varying fibre content/percentage (2, 2.5 and 3%) and eventually on jute fibre in varying fibre content/percentage (2, 2.5 and 3%). The present paper indicates that in both the fibre employed for reinforcement exhibited an increment in soil strength. Amongst coir and jute fibre content/percentage, jute seems to have shown improvement accompanied by enhanced resistance to the cracking. An attempt has been made to validate the experimental results by Finite Element Analysis using ABAQUS software. Thus, natural fibre (coir and jute) can be used as an alternative to reinforce the soil which in turn is not damaging for Rajasthan’s environmental circumstances.