3.

0 Results and Analysis

3.1. Mechanical properties of recycled glass fibres (RGF)

In order to investigate the mechanical properties of RGF, a series of laboratory tests have
been carried out in accordance with the stipulated ASTM standards. Compared with its initial
fibres, Table 5 displays the properties of RGF. However, although the initial RGF tensile
strength and flexural module values were found to be slightly lower, peak tensile strength and
flexural module values were acceptable to that of original fibres during breakage. This is
attributed to the longevity of glass fibres and their ability to maintain up to 70-75% strength
under tensile loading. No significant change in the tensile elongation of glass fibres at break
is observed regardless of the recycled or original fibres. This similar trend is governed by the
released strain energy that is intuitively unique to each fibre material during molecular
breakage, in this case glass fibre, which depends closely on its brittle behaviour.

Table 5. Mechanical properties comparisons of RGF and original glass fibres.

Property Test method Values

Recycled glass fibres Original glass fibres
Tensile strength (MPa) ASTM D638 1300‒2100 1900‒2600
Young's modulus (MPa) ASTM D638 42,000‒55,000 68,000‒73,000
Tensile elongation (%) ASTM D638 0‒2.8 0‒3.2
Flexural yield strength (MPa) ASTM D790 3200‒5000 4800‒6500
Flexural modulus (GPa) ASTM D790 7‒15 11‒39

3.2. The effect of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) coating

In order to study the impact of ABS coating, the correlation between the strength of original,
recycled and coated glass fibres was conducted. Fig. Fig. 2 shows the relationship of fibres to
tensile stress and strain. In comparison to the original fibre during breakage, the curve shows
an increase in peak tensile stress value from 2400 MPa to 2800 MPa for coated fibre.
Constant changes of 10-15% were observed in the tensile strain of fibres for both original and
recycled fibres, respectively. Coated fibre, however, shows lower tensile strain at the break
range of 5 to 10 percent. Although ABS coating improved the tensile strength of fibres,
failure breakage comparison shows that coated fibres impregnated with ABS further
propagate the tendency of brittleness of glass fibres. The irregular shape of the curve of the
strain of tensile stress in Fig. 2 suggests that before the failure of glass fibres, the ABS
coating layer covering the surface of glass fibres was broken. Similar coating breakage
behaviour was observed by Bateni et al (2011).

Fig. 2. The effect of ABS coating.

3.3. Fibre reinforced soils

The impact of RGF capacity as a soil reinforcing agent was tested under various conditions
and numerous confining vertical pressures by installing randomly distributed RGF in
different soil media. Fig. Fig. 3 shows the shear stress strain behaviour in dry and wet
conditions of reinforced and unreinforced sand. It appears that the shear strength of fibre
reinforced soil has been significantly improved in both dry and wet conditions. The volume
change in fibre-reinforced soil is less significant in dry conditions than in wet conditions.
Based on the figures, the maximum shear stress value obtained in the dry condition was
clearly observed to be greater than that of the maximum shear stress recorded in the wet
condition. The higher value of the shear stress value observed in dry conditions is believed to
be the direct result of the interlocking of the soil particles that maintains the integrity of the
shear strength parameters of the soil in the presence of excess water compared to the more
delicate nature of the soil (wet condition). Compared with unreinforced soil, the shear
strength of the reinforced soil is shown to be increased when RGF is included. This is
primarily due to the dilation and contraction, under various vertical pressures, of sand
particles. The dilation tendency is shown by the specimen sheared at low vertical pressures.
Meanwhile, due to the contraction of sand particles, the reinforced soil undergoes abrupt
volume reduction at higher vertical pressures. The embedded RGF that binds the soil fibre
matrix, however, helps to absorb both shear and normal stresses induced in reinforced soil by
the impact of vertical pressures.
Fig. 3. Stress strain behaviour of reinforced and unreinforced sand in dry and wet conditions.
(a) Dry condition (8–14% water content). (b) Wet condition (35–50% water content).

Fig. Fig. 4 demonstrates the shear stress strain behaviour in dry and wet conditions of
reinforced and unreinforced clay. The results show that the effect of RGF installation in the
wet clay sample differs slightly from that in the dry state. This is due to the presence of water
on the soil fiber interface that provides smoothness (less friction), thus allowing less
restriction for clay particles to slide at failure on the shear plane, resulting in lower shear
stresses that the soil can exert. Regardless of the difference in vertical pressures, the RGF
reinforced clay sample shows a similar trend to that of sand in the absence of excessive water
(8-14 percent w.c.).
Fig. 4. Stress strain behaviour of reinforced and unreinforced clay in dry and wet conditions.
(a) Dry condition (8–14% water content). (b) Wet condition (35–50% water content).

In this study due to the readily elevated presence of moisture in peat soil pores, consideration
was focused only on peat soil sample in dry condition (14-20 percent w.c.) without wet
sample analysis. This is due to the high ratio of organic matter to soil particles in peat soil
that are decomposable. In construction practise, peat soil that accounted for nearly 30-40
percent of the total soil cover in the tropical region plays an essential role, leading to its
inclusion for testing. Fig. Fig. 5 demonstrates in dry conditions the shear stress strain
behaviour of reinforced and unreinforced peat. Peat soil was observed to represent the lowest
shear strength value among all soil samples. This is attributed to the densely compacted
nature of the peat soil that tends to dilate, thus reducing its peak shear strength under the
shearing effect. However for higher vertical pressure, the inclusion of RGF was shown to
increase soil shear stress by 25 percent.

Fig. 5. Stress strain behaviour of reinforced and unreinforced peat in dry condition. Dry
condition (14–20% water content).
The improvement of different soil media in terms of shearing resistance and internal friction
angle is shown in Figs. Six and seven, respectively. All internal friction angles for all soil
samples have been observed to be significantly increased in the reinforced soil installed with
RGF. The shearing effect is significantly observed in cohesive soil samples such as clay and
peat where organic materials are expected to be present. The enhancement of shear
resistance in terms of the internal friction angle is created by the soil fibre matrix frictional
resistance formed along the shear failure plane. The formation of the soil fibre matrix has
maintained the integrity of the intactness of the granular soil and contributes to the increase in
the frictional resistance of the cohesive soil by improving its internal friction angles.

Fig. 6. Failure envelopes of various soil media.

Fig. 7. The improvement in shearing resistance in various soil conditions.