Behaviour of cemented and compacted clayey sand reinforced with two types of fibers

Considering Soil reinforcement techniques have been rapidly developed because of its efficiency in geotechnical engineering. The goal of this experimental work is to improve the characteristics of a collapsible soil with polyethylene fibers in the aim of reducing the number of plastic bottles thrown in nature and with natural materials such as sisal fibers. Polyethylene fibers contents in mass were used in this investigation, namely: 5%, 10% and 15%; Sisal fibers contents: 0.5% and 1% respectively. Oedometer apparatus is used to study the reinforcing fibers effect on the Collapse Potential, and direct shear box is used to determine the intrinsic characteristics of this treated soil. Results show that when the fiber reinforcement is combined with other processing procedures such as compaction and the addition of APC cement decrease the collapse potential until a non-collapsible soil is obtained.