Swelling pattern of polypropylene fiber reinforced expansive soils

Expansive soils are considered to be the one of the highly problematic soil. These soils undergo large volume change based on the amount of moisture content.. Because of this behaviour, lightly loaded civil engineering structures founded on the expansive soils gets severely damaged. There are several mitigating techniques available to counteract the problems posed by the expansive soils. In recent years geosynthetic fibers have been added to the soil to improve the strength behaviour of soils. Laboratory investigations were carried on expansive soil reinforced with short nylon fibers of length 10mm with varying content of 0%, 0.25%, 0.5%, 0.75% and 1% by dry weight of the soil. Surface heave of all the expansive clay specimens were monitored. It was observed that maximum reduction in heave occurred when the fiber content was 0.75%. The reduction in heave is due to the replacement of swelling soil and due to the reinforcing effect which resist the swelling nature of the soil.