Geotech Geol Eng (2016) 34:411–417
DOI 10.1007/s10706-015-9953-x
TECHNICAL NOTE
Strength Behavior of Clayey Soil Reinforced with Human
Hair as a Natural Fibre
Wajid Ali Butt . B. A. Mir . J. N. Jha
Received: 21 April 2015 / Accepted: 16 November 2015 / Published online: 19 November 2015
Ó Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015
Abstract There are various ground improvement
techniques available, soil reinforcement technique has
been successfully used in recent times to improve the
shear parameters of the marginal/weak soils. Among
various reinforcing materials, human hair fiber (HHF)
can be used as a natural fiber to enhance the shear
strength and bearing capacity of a clayey soil for
sustainable use of waste material and sustainable
development of infrastructures in a rapid urbanization.
Human hair fiber is a natural non-degradable waste
material, which creates health and environmental
problem if not disposed-off in scientific manner. This
is available in abundance at a very low cost and can be
easily used as a reinforcing material not only to
improve poor/unsuitable construction sites for sus-
tainable construction but also to avoid its disposal
problems. Therefore, this paper presents some studies
on strength properties of clayey soil reinforced with
HHF. The HHF randomly distributed in clayey soil
samples were tested for its engineering properties by
performing CBR and tri-axial test on a number of
samples by using the different percentage of fibres and
W. A. Butt (&)  J. N. Jha
Department of Civil Engineering, GNDEC Ludhiana,
Ludhiana, Punjab, India
e-mail: wajid2643@gmail.com;
wajid2643@yahoo.com
B. A. Mir
Department of Civil Engineering, National Institute of
Technology, Srinagar, J&K 190 006, India
comparing the results with the non-reinforced soil.
Fibres of average length 25 mm and average diameter
of 50 lm were used. The test result revealed that the
strength significantly improves with the inclusion of
HHF and also prevents the sample from cracking.
Keywords Waste material  Hair fibre 
Environmental pollution  Sustainable materials 
Sustainable development
1 Introduction
The geotechnical engineer has the challenge of
construction of foundation at the sites which are
previously considered unsuitable and unacceptable.
Since the advent of the fibre reinforcing of concrete in
the 1940s a great deal of testing has been conducted on
the various fibrous materials to determine the actual
characteristics and advantages for each product.
Among various reinforcing materials, human hair
fibre (HHF) can be used as a natural Fiber to enhance
the shear strength and bearing capacity of a clayey soil
for sustainable use of waste material and sustainable
development of infrastructures in a rapid urbanization.
Many types of fibres were used and tested (asbestos,
steel, glass, synthetics etc.) for stabilization of
marginal soils. As natural fibres, horse hairs were
used in motor and straw for mud bricks and many plant
types like sisal, coir, bamboo, jute, rice husk, elephant
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gross etc., were also used. During current times,
human hair fibre is considered a waste material in most
parts of the world and its accumulation in waste
streams causes many environmental problems; how-
ever, it has many known uses in the form of randomly
reinforced fibre in the present state of art and
technology. The exceptional properties of human hair
such as its unique chemical composition, slow degra-
dation rate, high tensile strength, thermal insulation,
elastic recovery, scaly surface, and unique interactions
with water and oils, has led to many diverse uses.
Recently soil reinforcement with short, discrete,
randomly oriented fibres is getting more attention
from many researchers around the world. Extensive
studies were carried out on the stabilization of soft
clays and expansive clays using various additives
such as lime, cement, synthetic and natural fibres.
Ranjan et al. (1994) conducted a series of triaxial
tests to study the behavior of plastic fibre reinforced
sand. Maher & Ho (1994) investigated the mechan-
ical properties of a kaolinite/fibre composite in
unconfined compression tests. Kaniraj and Gayathri
(2003) conducted an experimental study to investi-
gate the influence of randomly oriented fibre inclu-
sions on the geotechnical behavior of two Indian fly
ashes. Maliakal and Thiyyakkandi (2012) studied the
influence of randomly distributed coir fibres on the
shear strength of clay. They concluded that shear
strength improves significantly. Naeini and Sajadi
(2008) reported that waste polymer materials has
been chosen as reinforcement material and it was
randomly included into the clayey soils with differ-
ent plasticity indexes at five different percentages of
fibre content (0, 1, 2, 3, 4 %) by weight of raw soil
to enhance its engineering properties.
Pradhan et al. (2012) examined the effect of
random inclusion of polypropylene fibers on strength
characteristics of a clayey soil of intermediate
plasticity. Estabragh et al. (2011) investigated the
effects of fibre on the consolidation and shear
strength behavior of a clay soil reinforced with
nylon fibres. The effective use of natural fibres as
reinforcement was proved by several researches. Jha
et al. (2014) studied the behavior of plastic waste
fiber-reinforced industrial wastes in pavement appli-
cations. Akthar et al. (2008) studied the influence of
Fly ash mixed with lime having varying percentage
of HHFs in California Bearing Ratio (CBR) values.
Akhtar and Ahmad (2009) studied the effect of hair
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Geotech Geol Eng (2016) 34:411–417
fiber on mechanical properties of fly ash based
hollow block for masonry structures. Pillai and
Ramanathan (2012) describes the index properties
of soil using human hairs. The biggest advantage
particularly with human hair fiber (HHF) is that it is
non-degradable, even though it may be categorized
as natural fiber. Most of the study reported till date
with natural fiber are either coconut/jute fiber, which
are biodegradable in nature. From the literature is
quite evident that very few study with HHFs has
been reported in the stabilization of soils as rein-
forcement. Therefore, in the present study an attempt
has been made to use HHF as reinforcement for the
improvement of clayey soil. The objective of this
research is to understand and investigate the varia-
tion of the strength of the cohesive soil randomly
mixed with HHFs. The present study investigates the
suitability of solid waste material such as HHFs
which has the potential to replace conventional
commercial fiber which are quite costly. Application
of HHF in stabilizing cohesive soil, if found effective
may become an environmental friendly solution
for HHF which other wise is dumped near the place
of generation and creates lot of clogging for water
flow.
2 Materials Used and Experimental Program
2.1 Soil
The soil used the present study is clayey in nature. All
the requisite physical and mechanical properties were
determined as per relevant Standard tests (IS: 2720).
The physical properties are given in Table 1.
2.2 Human Hair Fibre
The HHF was gathered from local sources. The hair
thread is a natural fibre formed by keratin, a protein
with a high grade of sulfur. The main physical
properties of the hair depend mostly on its geometry;
the physical and mechanical properties of hair involve
characteristics to improve elasticity, smoothness,
volume, shine and softness due to both the significant
adherence of the cuticle scales and the movement
control as well as the easiness of combing, since they
reduce the fibres static electricity. The average com-
position of normal hair is composed of 45.68 %
Geotech Geol Eng (2016) 34:411–417 413

Table 1 Properties of materials used

Properties of clayey soil Properties of human hair fibre

Clay content (%) 63 Cross-section Circular

Specific gravity 2.67 Diameter 50 lm
Liquid limit (%) 53.7 Length 25 mm
Plastic limit (%) 27.5 Linear density (gm/cc) 1.25–1.40
Plasticity Index (%) 26.2 Elongation 1.5 times its dry weight
Shrinkage limit (%) 12.7 Tensile strength About 400 Mpa
Classification CH Flexural strength (Mpa) 25–30
Maximum dry density (gm/cc) 1.72 Chemical reaction Depends on Hair surface porosity. About 80 % of human
hair is formed by a protein known as keratin
Optimum moisture content (%) 23.7
Compression Index, Cc 0.30 Absorption Depends on physical process of surface tension
CBR at OMC (%) 4.70 Friction Depends on the cuticle geometry and on the
physical–chemical status of the hair

carbon, 27.9 % oxygen, 6.6 % hydrogen, 15.72 %
nitrogen and 5.03 % sulphur (Choudhry and Pandey
2012). After collecting HHF from local sources, fiber
of approximate same length was segregated manually
and the average length and diameter was kept as
25 mm and 50 lm, thus keeping aspect ratio (l/d)
constant having the value equal to 500. After cutting
HHF into desired form (Fig. 1) it was mixed randomly
with oven dried soil. Figure 2 illustrates the scanning
electron microscopy images (Weia et al. 2004). The
properties of these fibres are given in Table 1.
2.3 Preparation of Samples and Laboratory Tests
In this study, human hair fibres were used as an additive
to the high compressibility clayey soil by weight (0.5,
1.0, 1.5, 2.0 and 2.5 %) to evaluate the effect of human
hair fibre on the mechanical behavior of clayey soil. All
the samples were prepared at the OMC and 0.95 cmax
(MDD) as per IS: 2720 (Part VII, 1980). For triaxial test
cylindrical specimen of size 38.1 mm in diameter and
76.2 mm in lengths were used. For CBR, mould has
inner diameter 150 mm and height 175 mm for placing
CBR test specimen. Fibres were mixed to the oven
dried soil and extra care was taken during mixing of the
soil sample so as to get uniform distribution of
HHF.CBR and UU triaxial tests were conducted on
compacted HHF reinforced clayey samples having a
curing period of 7 days, Strain rate of 1.25 mm per
minute was applied during the CBR. Undrained triaxial
tests were conducted under different confining pres-
sures ranging from 0.5 kg/cm2 (50 kPa) to 2.0 kg/cm2
(200 kPa). For all percentages of HHF three samples
were tested to ensure the repeatability of the test results
and the results reported were the average value
obtained from three samples.

Fig. 1 Illustration of human hair fibre

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Fig. 2 Scanning electron microscopic images of human hair samples

3 Results and Discussion Resistance to penetration of a rigid plunger is

measured and the loads at penetrations of 2.5 and
3.1 Effect Human Hair Fibre on CBR 5.0 mm were expressed as percentage of two standard
and Undrained Shear Strength of Clayey Soil loads (1370 and 2055 kg). The higher percentage was
taken as the CBR value (which was 2.5 mm penetra-
Of all the available methods of design, the CBR tion). In the present study, an attempt was made to
method has been found the most practical means of conduct CBR tests on clayey soil reinforced with HHF.
evaluating the strength of the sub-grade (bearing Figure 3 show results of CBR tests for clayey soil
capacity of the soil) for estimating the required reinforced with human hair fibre. As seen from Fig. 4
thickness of pavement to satisfy a given loading.
10
400
HHF: 0% CBR variation @ 2.5mm
penetration
HHF: 0.5%
8
300 HHF: 1.0%
HHF: 1.5%
Load (Kg)

HHF: 2.0% 6
CBR (%)

200 HHF: 2.5%

100

0
0 5 10 15 0
Penetration (mm) 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5
Human hair fibre content (%)
Fig. 3 Penetration curves for CBR tests for clayey soil
reinforced with human hair fibre Fig. 4 Variation of CBR with addition of human hair fibre

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with HHF 0 % the CBR value was 4.70 % which was
increased to 7.75 % after addition of 2 % HHF.
Therefore it is quite evident of mixing HHF in the
marginal soil for construction of road pavements. As
seen, about 2.0 % HHF is the optimum quantity to
enhance the maximum CBR value at 2.5 mm pene-
tration. When compared with other studies the results
shows similar trends like other natural fibers.
The increase in CBR values due to addition of HFF
to clayey soil may be attributed due to improved
interfacial adhesion between the soil particles and the
fibre, which allows a more efficient transfer of stress
along the fibre matrix interface. However, the decrease
in CBR values beyond optimum fibre content may be
due to the increase in fibre–fibre interaction. The fibre
may not be perfectly aligned with soil matrix leading
to poor dispersion of fibre in the soil matrix thus
resulted in a lower efficiency of load transfer with
increase in fibre content. Hence, up to some optimum
content, natural fibres, as a potential reinforcement
ingredient offers many advantages such as good
strength properties, low cost, high toughness,
biodegradability. However, the overall performance
of any fibre depends to a large extent upon the fibre–
matrix interface which in turn is governed by the
surface topography of the fibre and by the chemical
composition of fibre surface and resin properties.
Figure 5 shows the variation of deviator stress (q)
with mean stress {p = (r1 ? 2r3)/3} for the
undrained triaxial compression tests of clayey soil
Fig. 5 Stress-path
behaviour of human hair
fibre reinforced clayey
specimens for undrained
conditions
415
reinforced with HHF. As can be seen, the slope (M) of
the critical state line (CSL) for composite specimens
varies drastically with an average value of 1.28. The
corresponding shearing strength parameter (/0 ) at

critical state corresponding to qf pf 0 of 1.28 is equal to
32° and was calculated using the Eq. (1):
3M
Sin /0 ¼ ð1Þ
6þM
Variation of stress ratio (M = q/p) with mean
stress and confining pressure for reinforced clayey
specimens is shown in Fig. 6. As can be seen, in
Fig. 6 stress ratio shows more scatter in data with
mean stress resulting in higher rate of loss of strength
compared to confining pressure. Hence, under higher
mean stress, composite samples exhibit lower brit-
tleness compared to untreated clayey soil sample. It
shows that soil is lightly to heavily over consolidated
resulting in medium stiff to stiff consistency. The
undrained shear strength of clays or clayey soil is
taken equal to qmax
2 . It is well known that the undrained
shear strength (Su) of normally consolidated (NC)
clays normalised with respect to the current effective
vertical stress is unique, and for over consolidated
(OC) clays, the following relationship adequately
represents the normalised undrained shear strength
through (Eq. 2):
 
Su
¼ a ðOCRÞm ð2Þ
p0o OC
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Fig. 6 Variation of stress

ratio (M = q/p) with mean
stress and confining pressure
for clayey specimens
reinforced with human hair
fibre (HHF)

where OCR is the overconsolidation ratio defined as
the ratio between the maximum past effective vertical
r0
stress and the current effective vertical stress (¼ r0p ),

vo
m is an empirical exponent equal to 1  jk , j, k are
soil model parameters obtained from laboratory test-
ing, and ‘‘a’’ is the normalised undrained shear
 
strength of NC clay = Spu0 for OCR = 1.
o NC
Figure 7 shows variation of undrained shear
strength (Su) with HHF at different confining pressures
for clayey specimens reinforced with human hair fibre
(HHF). As seen, there is no improvement in strength
under lower confining pressure up to 1 % HHF and
beyond this value there is a marginal increase.
However, higher confining pressures show steady
state improvement with maximum strength at 2 %
HHF. This indicated that compared to higher confining
pressures, lower confining pressure could not initiate
interfacial adhesion between the soil particles and the
fibre so effectively. When the confining pressure is
lower (50 kPa) the interfacial adhesion between the
soil and the fiber is not so effective that the shear
strength is not improved significantly. With increase in
confining pressure the interfacial adhesion becomes

Fig. 7 Variation of
undrained shear strength
(Su) with confining pressure
for clayey specimens
reinforced with human hair
fibre (HHF)

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effective that leads to increase of shear strength
significantly. The strength and CBR both reduce when
HHF content is more then 2 % this may be because of
too many fibers in soil matrix could lead to reduction
of the interfacial adhesion between soil particles and
fibers which may reduce strength and CBR value for
the reinforced soil. From the test results it reveals that
2 % is the optimum fiber content.
4 Conclusions
Based on test results, it may be concluded that human
hair can be used as a natural reinforcing medium for
stabilization of marginal soft clayey soils. HHF exhibits
many advantages such as good strength properties, low
cost and high toughness to biodegradability. However by
increasing the HHF content, it marginally affects the dry
density-moisture content relationships of composite spec-
imens. MDD initially reduces lightly due to addition of
light weight hair fiber and then practically remains same.
OMC increases marginally due to moisture absorption of
hair fibres. It has been seen that about 2 % fibre content is
the optimum quantity to enhance CBR and undrained
shear strength of clayey soil.
Hence, using HHF as a reinforcing agent has a
twofold advantage. First, to avoid the tremendous
environmental problems caused by dumping of human
hair waste in open fields and second, to help in
sustainable development of the various infrastructures
on marginal soils reinforced with HHF. This rein-
forcement may also be used in the field for embank-
ments especially for approach roads which connect the
bridges to the road. It is also beneficial for the stability
of slopes. If this reinforcement is used in the flexible
pavements the sub-grade thickness decreases.
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