Indian Geotechnical Conference – 2010, GEOtrendz

December 16–18, 2010

IGS Mumbai Chapter & IIT Bombay

Application of Geonatural Spoils in Sub Base for Road Construction

Maity, J. Chattopadhyay, B.C. Mukherjee, S.P.1

Lecturer Geotechnical Advisor & Professor Professor
e-mail: joymaity1975@yahoo.co.in e-mail: ccbikash@yahoo.com e-mail: sibapmukh@yahoo.co.in

Dept. of Civil Engineering, Meghnad Saha Institute of Technology, Kolkata

1
Dept. of Civil Engineering, Jadavpur University, Kolkata

ABSTRACT
Large quantities of jute spoils are generated in jute mills where they are treated as waste materials. These spoils
can be used as additive materials suitably with sand by providing better interlocking between the jute spoil and
the sand. With this in view a suitable experimental programme was undertaken to examine the improvement of
CBR of sand with addition of jute spoil fiber. The paper highlights improvement of CBR with use of jute spoil fiber
for fine brown sand and silver sand.

1. INTRODUCTION 2. REVIEW OF PAST WORKS

In flexible pavement, subgrades support the subbase which
is conventionally constructed with brickbats. However due
to paucity of good clays to make brick, to stop encroachment
in agricultural lands which is itself shrinking due to
industrialization, from the brick manufacturer and also to
lessen use of dear energy for firing bricks, use of brick bats
in construction of road subbase is being discouraged.
Therefore sand is gradually being using as alternate
material for construction of subbase.
However, to place sand in subbase with proper density
and maintaining the compacted state of such sand on time
scale is quite complicated problem in practice. The sand
must retain the required placement density and offer same
high CBR value achieved at the time of its initial placement
to maintain the stability of the road itself. In this regard
preliminary research of using fibre reinforced sand shows
possibility to improve the compactibility of the sand, to
develop high CBR value and to sustain the compactness.
Extensive research is needed to study the behaviour of fibre
reinforced soil to seek their applicability in practice as cost
effective, eco-friendly technology.
Geotextiles made from natural fibres like jute or coir
are being employed as economic and eco-friendly solution
(Chattopadhyay et.al, 1997,1998, 2003, 2004, 2007,
2008,2009). In the proposed study, an attempt has been
made to carryout experiments on composite sand-jute
system to examine its compactive characteristics in respect
of the sand alone.
Fiber inclusion causes signiûcant modiûcation and
improvement in the engineering behavior of soils. The main
advantages of randomly distributed discrete fibres are the
simplicity in mixing, maintenance of strength isotropy and
absence of potential planes of weakness which may develop
parallel to the oriented reinforcement. Use of randomly
distributed fibre reinforced soils can be advantageously
utilized as a ground improvement technique in the case of
embankments, subgrades and in similar other problems.
Different materials for fibre being used for study are glass
fibre (Pazare et.al 2002), Nylon fibre (Jain et al, 2003),
synthetic fibre like polypropylene fibres (Consoli
et.al,1998), Polyester fibre (Kaniraj et.al,2001), fragmented
rubber shredded tyre (Lindh & Mattsson 2004, Akram et
al. 2004) etc.
However, above inclusions are generally expensive and
non-biodegradable resulting higher costs with doubtful
environmental effects. This problem can be solved by using
locally available natural fibers. Natural fibres like jute, coir,
sisal, palm fibre etc. are mostly available in third world
countries at a low cost and their supply is ensured from
agriculture products.
Gray and Ohashi (1983) conducted a series of direct
shear tests on dry sand reinforced with different synthetic,
natural and metallic ûbers to evaluate the effect of parameters,
such as ûber orientation, ûber content, and ûber area ratios,
and ûber stiffness on contribution to shear strength. Based
on the test results, they concluded that an increase in shear
strength is where empirical coefficient is introduced to take
618 Application of Geonatural Spoils in Sub Base for Road Construction

into account the effect of ûber orientation. For randomly To investigate the compactibility and strength
oriented ûbers directly proportional to the ûber area ratios, characteristics of sand and fiber material the following
and shear strength envelopes for ûber-reinforced sand clearly series of standard proctor compaction tests and CBR tests
showed the existence of a threshold conûning stress below were conducted as per codal provision.
which the ûbers tries to slip or pull out. Maher and Gray Series A
(1990) conducted triaxial compression tests on sand
Fine brown sand with Jute fibers 0.5%, 1%, 1.5% and 2%
reinforced with discrete, randomly distributed ûbers and by dry weight of sand of length10mm, 20mm and 30mm.
observed the inûuence of various ûber properties, soil
properties and other test variables on soil behavior. They Series B
reported that the strength of reinforced sand increases with Silver sand with Jute fibers 0.5%, 1%, 1.5% and 2% by
increase in aspect ratio, fiber content, and soil fiber surface dry weight of sand of length10mm, 20mm and 30mm.
friction. The summary of the physical properties of sands and
In order to study the influence of natural fibers on the fibers are listed in Table 1 and Table 2 respectively.
CBR value of the silty soil, Shetty and Rao (1987) performed Table 1: Summary of Physical Properties of Sands
series of laboratory CBR tests. The results of these tests shows Properties Fine Silver
that coir fibers reinforced silty sand (SM) with the addition Brown Sand
of coir fibers ( 10% by volume) resulted in increase in CBR Sand
value by 26% and 22% under soaked and unsoaked conditions Specific gravity 2.632 2.542
respectively. Guha (1995) reveal that coir fibre differs from Coefficient of uniformity Cu) 2.09 2.47
jute fibres in an aspect other than durability, jute fibres exhibit Coefficient of curvature (Cc) 0.99 1.22
Mean grain size (D50) 0.3 0.17
moderately high modulus as well as high tenacity and very Percent finer than 75µ sieve 2.6 10.18
low elongation at break whereas coir fibres behave exactly Classification (IS) SP SM
in the opposite manner, namely moderately low modulus, low Maximum dry density (gm/cc) 1.623 1.588
tenacity and very high elongation at break. This difference Optimum moisture content (%) 15.3 15.5
persists irrespective of the length of coir fibre. California bearing ratio (%) 8.4 7.0
In our present investigation, natural jute spoil fibers Table 2: Summary of Physical Properties of Fiber (after
collected from local jute-mill and locally available fine brown National Jute Board)
sand and silver sand were utilized. Results of the Tests Jute Spoil
experimental study made with various length and proportion Density 1.47
of jute spoils fiber mixed with different types of sand are Diameter (mm) 0.03-0.14
reported in this paper. Fineness (denier) 20
Tenacity (gm/denier) 4.2
3. MATERIALS AND TEST PROGRAMME Elongation at break (%) 1.2
Locally available fine brown sand & silver sand were used Moisture content % at 65% RH 13
in this experiment. Jute fibers cut into small pieces (Fig.1)
4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
of length 30mm, 20mm and 10mm were used as natural
addition material. Fibers were randomly mixed in sand to Standard Proctor Compaction Test
form homogeneous mixture. Uniform distribution of the jute The variation in MDD vs %fiber content curve are plotted
spoil fiber and sand was achieved with a consistent mixing for brown fine sand and silver sand mixed with varying
procedure. If fibers are mixed in dry sand, segregation of fiber length of jute spoil fiber are shown in fig. 2, the result
were noted. To eliminate this problem, the fiber was first show that as the fiber content increases, the maximum dry
wetted with required quantity of water, then mix to sand. Fine sand + jute fibre 2cmlenght Fine sand + jute fibre 1cm lenght
Silver sand + jute fibre 2cm lenght Silver sand + jute fibre 1cm lenght
1.62
Maximum Dry density (gm/cc)

1.6

1.58

1.56

1.54

1.52

1.5
Maximum Dry density Vs fiber content
1.48
0.0% 0.5% 1.0% 1.5% 2.0% 2.5%
Fiber content(%)

Fig. 2: Maximum Dry Density vs % Fibre Content Curve for

Fig. 1: Jute Spoils Fiber Cut into Pieces of Definite Length Different Sands Mixed with Jute Spoils Fiber
J. Maity, B.C. Chattopadhyay and S.P. Mukherjee 619

density decreases in the range of 0.68% to 3.16% and 0.31%

to 1.7% for fine sand and silver sand respectively with CBR vs length of jute spoil for Fine sand
11
inclusion of fiber of length 20mm. For the addition of 10mm 10.5
10

jute spoil fiber in fine sand and silver sand, MDD decreases 9.5
9

CBR
in the range of 3.6% to 6.9% and 1.9% to 3.15% 8.5
8

respectively. 7.5
7 Fine sand + 0.5% jute fiber Fine sand + 0.5% jute fiber
6.5 Fine sand + 0.5% jute fiber Fine sand + 0.5% jute fiber
The variation in OMC vs %fiber content curve are 6
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
Length of Jute fiber
plotted for brown fine sand and silver sand mixed with
Fig. 5: CBR vs Length of Jute Fiber Plot for Fine Brown Sand
varying length of jute spoil fiber are shown in fig. 3, the Mixed with Varying Length Jute Spoils Fiber
result show that as the fiber content increases, the OMC
increases in the range of 5.23% to 17.65% and 4.5% to 9% 11
CBR vs length of jute spoil for silver sand

for fine sand and silver sand respectively with the inclusion 10.5
10

fiber of length 20mm. For the addition of 10mm jute spoil 9.5
9

CBR
fiber in fine sand and silver sand, OMC increases in the 8.5
8

range of 1.3% to 15.6% and 1.9% to 7% respectively. 7.5

7
Silver sand + 0.5% jute fiber Silver sand + 1.0% jute fiber
6.5 Silver sand + 1.5% jute fiber Silver sand +2% jute fiber
Fine sand + jute fibre 2cmlenght Fine sand + jute fibre 1cm lenght 6
Silver sand + jute fibre 2cm lenght Silver sand + jute fibre 1cm lenght 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
18.5 Length of Jute fiber

18
Fig. 6: CBR vs Length of Jute Fiber Plot for Silver Sand
Optimum moisture

17.5
content(%)

17 Mixed with Varying Length Jute Spoils Fiber

16.5

16 From the CBR curves, it can be observed that the CBR

15.5

15
Optimum moisture content Vs fiber content
0.0% 0.5%
Fig. 3: Optimum Moisture Content vs % Fibre Content Curve
for Different Sands Mixed with Jute Spoils Fiber
The variation in OMC vs %fiber content curve are
plotted for brown fine sand and silver sand mixed with
varying length of jute spoil fiber are shown in fig. 3, the
result show that as the fiber content increases, the OMC
increases in the range of 5.23% to 17.65% and 4.5% to 9%
for fine sand and silver sand respectively with the inclusion
fiber of length 20mm. For the addition of 10mm jute spoil
fiber in fine sand and silver sand, OMC increases in the
values increase both with the increase in fiber content and
1.0% 1.5%
Fiber content(%)
2.0% 2.5%
fiber length up to a maximum limit, after that it decreases.
This increase is more predominant for silver sand.
Fig.7 shows that for fine sand, as the percentage of
jute spoil fiber and length of fiber increases, CBR value
increases to maximum 23.8% for 1.5% inclusion of 20mm
length fiber.
For silver sand, Fig.8 shows that as the percentage of
jute spoil fiber and length of fiber increases, CBR value
increases to maximum 48.5% for 1.5% inclusion of 20mm
length fiber.
Percentage increase in CBR for Fine brown sand

range of 1.3% to 15.6% and 1.9% to 7% respectively. 25

20
The decrease in density is most likely a result of the
15
fiber having less specific weight in comparison with the 10
% increase
in CBR
sand grains. The increase in moisture content is most likely 5

the result of the fibers having a greater water absorption 0

0.50
capacity than the surrounding sand. % fi 1.00
ber
con
1.50 20
30

10 m
ten 2.00 in m
t gth
r Len
California Bearing Ratio Test Fibe

The variation in CBR vs % jute fiber content for brown Fig. 7: Percentage of CBR Increase with Respect of Length of
fine sand and silver sand are shown in fig. 4 and variation Jute Fiber and % of Fiber Content for Fine Sand
in CBR vs Length of jute fiber for brown fine sand and Percentage increase in CBR for Sliver sand

silver sand are shown in fig. 5 and fig. 6 respectively. 50

45
40
11 CBR vs % jute spoil 35
10.5 30
10 25
% increase
9.5 20 in CBR
9 15
10
8.5
5
CBR

8
0
7.5 0.50
Fine sand& jute spoil 2cm length silver sand jute spoil 2cm length 30
7 % fi 1.00
ber 20
con 1.50
Fine sand& jute spoil 1cm length silver sand jute spoil 1cm length
6.5 ten 2.00 10 m m
Fine sand& jute spoil 3cm length silver sand jute spoil 3cm length t th in
6 r Leng
Fibe
0.0% 0.5% 1.0% 1.5% 2.0% 2.5%
% Jute spoil

Fig. 4: CBR vs % Jute Fiber Content Curve for Different Fig. 8: Percentage of CBR Increase with Respect of Length of
Sands Mixed with Varying Length Jute Spoils Fiber Jute Fiber and % of Fiber Content for Silver Sand
620 Application of Geonatural Spoils in Sub Base for Road Construction
5. CONCLUSIONS
From the experimental investigation reported above,
following conclusion may be drawn.
1. Value of MDD decreases and value of OMC
increases with the increase in jute fibers content
for both sand. But as the length of fiber increases
MDD increases and again decreases for both fine
brown sand and silver sand.
2. There is a considerable increase in the CBR value
for both fine sand and silver sand when mixing
with randomly distributed discrete jute spoil fiber.
3. CBR value is maximum when jute fiber of length
20mm are added 1.5% of the dry weight of sand
for both Fine brown sand and Silver sand.
4. For both Fine brown sand and Silver sand,
optimum percentage inclusion is 1.5% by dry
weight of sand and optimum length of fiber
inclusion is 20mm.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The writers are thankful to authorities of National Jute
Board, Kolkata, for providing the Jute spoil fiber material.
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