Geotechnical properties of reinforced clayey soil using nylons carry’s bags by products

Abstract

All structures built on soft soil may experience uncontrollable settlement and critical bearing capacity. This may not meet the design requirements for the geotechnical engineer. Soil stabilization is the change of these undesirable properties in order to meet the requirements. Traditional methods of stabilizing or through in-situ ground improvement such as compaction or replacement technique is usually costly. Now a safe and economic disposal of industrial wastes and development of economically feasible ground improvement techniques are the important challenges being faced by the engineering community. This work focuses on improving the soft soil brought from Baghdad by utilizing the local waste material for stabilization of soil, such as by using “Nylon carry bag’s by product” with the different percentage and corresponding to 1 %, 3% and 5% (the portion of stabilizer matters to soil net weight) of dried soil. The results indicated that as Nylon’s fiber content increases, the liquid limit decreases while the plastic limit increases, so the plasticity index decreases. Furthermore, the maximum dry density decreases while, the optimum moisture content increases as the Nylon’s fiber percentage increases. The compression index (decreases as the Nylon’s fiber increases and provides a maximum of 43% reduction by adding 5% nylon waste material. In addition, the results indicated that, the undrained shear strength increases as the nylon fiber increases.