Studies on compressive strength of sandy clay soil samples with different percentages of lime and nylon fibres

Abstract

To develop economically feasible and durable methods of ground improvement are some of the major challenges faced by geotechnical engineers. Many commonly available stabilisers like lime, fly ash, rice husk ash has been used in many studies. These stabilisers are known to improve the compressive strength of soil. But in order to improve the tensile properties of soil and increase the ductility characteristics, fibres can be included along with the commonly used stabilisers. In this paper values of compressive strength of sandy clay soil treated with different concentrations of lime and nylon fibre is studied and compared with the values of untreated native soil. The compressive strength of soil increases with increase in lime content up to 10%. The compressive strength of soil also increases with nylon fibre inclusion up to a concentration of 0.3%. With further increase in nylon fibre content, compressive strength decreases in the studied samples. In the present study the difference in the increase in compressive strength shown by composites with random and horizontal layers of nylon fibres as inclusions appears to be very small. The present study concludes that a combination of lime and nylon fibre can be a better stabilizer for ground improvement.

Keywords—unconfined compressive strength, lime, horizontal layer, nylon fibre