Evaluation of lateritic soil stabilized with Arecanut coir for low volume pavements

Abstract

Soil stabilization is a common method used by engineers and designers to enhance the properties of soil with different stabilizers. From ancient times, usage of natural fiber in soil as reinforcement is an effective technology adopted. This paper presents the effect of including randomly spaced Arecanut coir to the soil mix. The engineering properties and bearing capacity of a soil get enhanced by stabilizing it with Arecanut coir and a binding material (cement). The information available on experiments and research on the behavior of soil cement mixtures were collected and a few studies conducted on fiber reinforcement were referred. The current study mainly focuses on the durability test and physical evaluation of soil cement mixtures reinforced with Arecanut coir. Coir content was varied from 0.2% to 1% with an increment of 0.2%. For further improvement, a uniform dosage of 3% cement was added to soil. Laboratory tests including the Unconfined Compressive Strength (UCS), California Bearing Ratio (CBR), durability and fatigue behavior, were conducted as per standards. The test results indicated that the improvement in characteristics of the soil cement coir mixtures were functions of coir dosage, soil type and curing days. Durability test satisfied at 1% Arecanut coir with 3% cement. The stress-strain values were determined and damage analysis was conducted for the higher dosage of Arecanut coir using KENPAVE software. From the results it is observed that, the Arecanut coir reinforced cement soil mix can be used for low volume roads (traffic ?1 million standard axles) and few design cases have been discussed. 2014 Elsevier Ltd.