Utilization of alkali-treated areca fibers for stabilizing silty sand soil for use in pavement subgrades: Analysis using IITPAVE software

Abstract

AbstractThe increasing growth of urban areas and the rise in infrastructure development activities have put a strain on the availability of land with desirable soil conditions. This has led to the development of several stabilization techniques that can be used to improve the properties of weaker soils for construction. The research presented here explores the impact of inducing randomly oriented alkali-treated areca fibers for stabilization of silty sand soil. A sequence of experiments was carried out on the soil-fiber mixtures to investigate the strength of the soil after stabilization. At increments of 0.2%, the fiber dose varied between 0 – 0.8% of the dry weight of the soil. The tests conducted includes compaction tests, California bearing ratio (CBR), unconfined compression strength (UCS) tests, and unconsolidated undrained (UU) triaxial tests. The results obtained showed a notable increase in the strength of the soil-fiber mixtures. An increase in fiber content was found to increase the OMC (optimum moisture content) values and decrease the MDD (maximum dry unit weight) values. The maximum strength of the soil-fiber mixture was obtained at 0.6% fiber content. This makes it possible to use silty sand soil subgrades for low-volume roads with a traffic of less than 2 million standard axles based on the IITPAVE analysis. In essence, the test findings indicated that the ideal fiber content to be 0.6%. Stabilization of local on-site soils is one of the sustainable practices that can help extend the life of a pavement and lessen the need for more frequent repairs/maintenance.