Stabilization of Black Cotton Soil Using Coir Fiber

Fiber reinforced soils have become one of the construction materials in civil engineering. Construction of building and other civil engineering structures on availability clayey soil is highly risky, on geotechnical grounds due to poor strength properties of the clayey soil. There may be the need for soil treatment to improve the engineering properties of soil. The purpose of this investigation is to identify and quantify the influence of coir fiber on performance of fiber reinforced soil specimens. In this study, coir fiber mixed with clayey soil in various proportions (0%, 0.5%, 1.0% and 1.5% by weight of dry clayey soil) to investigate the relative strength gained in terms of compaction CBR & Unconfined Compressive strength. The results clearly indicate that 1.5% coir fiber when unsoaked have noticeable influence on CBR value of expansive soil it improved from 1.03 to 2.04. As well as the CBR values after curing for 28 days also showed an increase by 15% after soaking. The unconfined compressive strength was improved by 60% at 1% coir fiber. The UCS also showed an increase about 23% after curing for 28 days. This is because of composite effect of waste materials, which changes the brittle behavior of soil to ductile behavior. So from this study we can state that coir fiber is a good material to enhance the soil properties.