Effect of Random Inclusion of Wheat Straw Fibers on Shear Strength Characteristics of Shanghai Cohesive Soil

Abstract

The effect of random inclusion of wheat straw (fibers) on shear strength characteristics of Shanghai cohesive soil is presented in this paper. 1 year old natural wheat straw (fibers) with four section lengths of 5, 10, 15, 20 mm (aspect ratio: l/d = 1.67, 3.33, 5, 6.67) are used as reinforcement and specific Shanghai cohesive soil is used as medium. Locally available cohesive soil is compacted with standard Proctor’s maximum density with low percentage of reinforcement (0.1–0.4 % of wheat straw sections by weight of oven-dried soil). A series of direct shear tests were conducted on unreinforced as well as reinforced soil to investigate the shear strength characteristics of wheat straw-reinforced soil. The test results show that the inclusion of randomly distributed wheat straw sections (fibers) in soil increases the shear strength to one degree or another. It is noticed that the optimum wheat straw (fiber) content for achieving maximum shear strength is 0.3 % of the weight of oven-dried soil for wheat straw fiber length 15–20 mm (aspect ratio: 5–6.67).