Compressive and Flexural Strength of Cement-treated Sand Reinforced with Palm Fiber

Abstract

Cement is commonly used as a stabilizing agent to improve engineering properties of soils. However, the cement-treated soil exhibits more brittle behavior than non-treated soil. To overcome such a brittle nature of cement-treated soil, either natural or synthetic fiber have been included in cement-treated soil. In this research, the influence of palm fiber on the mechanical properties of cement-treated sand was investigated. A series of unconfined compression (UC) and flexural tests (FX) were conducted for different cement content (5 and 7%), fiber content (0.5, 1.0 and 2.0%) and fiber length (10, 20 and 40 mm). The results from the UC and FX tests indicated that the inclusion of fiber changed the brittle behaviour of cement-treated sand to a ductile behaviour and decreased the loss of post-peak strength. The compressive strength of cement-treated sand reinforced with fiber presented an initial increase followed by a decrease with increasing fiber content. The optimum fiber content was found to be 1.0%. The addition of fiber content slightly increased the flexural strength of cementtreated sand. However, the residual strength and toughness significantly increased with the increase in the fiber content. The equivalent flexural strength ratio (RT,150 D ) indicating the performance of fiber after cracking showed increase as the fiber increases. It was observed that the change of cement content slightly influenced on the value of RT,150 D . This indicated that the flexural performance of the cementtreated sand reinforced with fiber is controlled by the amount of fiber rather than the matrix strength.