Experimental Studies on Use of Polypropylene Material (Emptied Cement Bags) in Soils-An Alternative to Geosynthetics

On many situations, industrial and infrastructural projects are constructed on soft and weak soil of low bearing capacity. Under these circumstances, the geotechnical engineers normally opt for a suitable ground improvement technique, to improve bearing capacity and reduce settlements. In these situations, reinforced soil has become a viable and cost-effective technique and use of geosynthetics has been proven to be another alternative. But, the use of geosynthetics is not cost effective. Geosynthetics improves the tensile strength of the soil and as a replacement to it, low cost emptied cement bags (made out of polymeric materials) can be used. Improved bearing capacity can be expected when emptied cement bags are used as the reinforcement to the soils. In this paper deteriorated emptied cement bag fibres are used as a stabilizing material to improve the soil characteristics of the cohesive and cohesionless soils. An experimental programme is presented to explore the beneficial aspects of emptied cement bags which is used for stabilizing soils. It is found that this stabilizing technique has improved the cohesion and angle of internal friction in case of cohesionless soils and increased the unconfined compressive strength to a noticeable extent in case of cohesive soils.