Soil stabilization using polypropylene

Abstract

Naturally found soil may or may not be strong enough to hold superstructures. For weak soil the method of soil stabilization is used to increase its strength. Consequently, randomly distributed fibre-reinforced soils have recently attracted increasing attention in geotechnical engineering. Among various methods of soil stabilization, one is to reinforce the soil with fibres. This study investigates and compares the differences between unreinforced and reinforced soil. Soil here is reinforced with polypropylene fibre of length 24mm with varying percentage by mass of soil as 0.6% 0.8% 1.0% and 1.2%. The soil was tested and basic properties were identified. Unconfined compression tests have been carried out to draw inferences about the effect of polypropelene fibres on strength of soil. This study also finds out the optimum dosage of polypropylene fibre by analysing the results and obtaining the best values possible. Keywords—Soil stabilisation, Polypropylene fibre, Soil reinforcement,Optimum dosage