Strength Behavior of Sand Reinforced with Treated Sisal Fibers

Abstract

Improvement of the ground is an important challenge before geotechnical Engineers world over and the concept of reinforcing the soil using plant fibers has been used to improve the strength of the ground since ancient times. Plant fibers are lignocellulose in nature. Among these lignocellulose fibers, sisal fibers have the potential to replace synthetic fibers in various applications. In the present study model footings of different sizes, viz., 10, 20, and 30 mm were tested with sand admixed with sisal fibers. The Sisal fiber was cut in to have an average length of 10 to 20 mm and admixed randomly in sand with different percentages of 0, 0.5, 1, 2, and 3%. Model footing tests were performed by static loading of the footings in the model tank of size 260 mm length 260 mm breadth 350 mm height which was filled with sand and sisal fiber-reinforced sand. The sand was filled using the sand raining technique to achieve 75% relative density. From the test results, it was found that sand mixed with 2% sisal fiber had a larger bearing capacity compared with all other combinations of sand admixed with other percentages of sisal fibers.