Use of Jute Geotextile in Strength Enhancement of Soft Subgrade Soil

Abstract

Construction of pavement on soft or weak soils is highly unsecure since such soils have low shear strength and California bearing ratio (CBR), high compressibility, liquefaction potential, and differential settlement. In India, more than 20% land area is covered with such type of soils. The pavement constructed over such soils will deteriorate significantly under heavy wheel loads, leading to substantial increase in construction and maintenance costs. In order to overcome such problems, some soil reinforcement technique has to be adopted because removal and replacement of soil will lead to heavy economic burden. Therefore, in the present investigation, open weave jute geotextile is chosen as the reinforcement material. The geotextile is placed in single and multiple layers at various depths from top of mold, and heavy compaction and soaked CBR tests are conducted. The test results indicate improvement in maximum dry density (MDD) for all reinforced cases as compared to virgin soil. Increase in CBR is observed for all single and double layer reinforced specimens and for one triple layer reinforced case. Maximum improvement of 54, 102, and 52%, respectively, is reported when geotextile is placed in single layer at 0.2H depth, double layer at 0.2H and 0.4H depths, and triple layer at 0.2H, 06H, and 0.8H depths from top of specimen, whereas it decreases even below to virgin soil value for four layers reinforcement. Thus, it can be concluded that jute geotextile can be effectively used as reinforcement material which not only boosts rural economy but also contributes in carbon foot print reduction to a great extent.