Fatigue Evaluation on Soil Beam Specimen for Different Percentages of Coir Admixtures

Abstract

For the design of pavement structure, the properties of subgrade soil play a vital role and should be stable under harsh traffic and climatic conditions. Soils generally found in distinguished sites are strong enough to bear the designed load of the superstructure or it needs to be strengthened according to the loading condition. Soil stabilization is an important aspect to improve the strength of soils and bring it up to certain standards as per the engineering projects. As the pavement structures are exposed to forces of nature and fatigue loads, their durability and stability are of key importance. Fatigue life is the number of traffic load cycles corresponding to the failure of the specimen that provides a check on the condition of stabilized soil after subjecting it to prolonged adverse climatic conditions and repeated application of traffic loads. The present study is carried to investigate the durability of clayey soil mixed with different percentages of coir fiber. The durability and fatigue behavior of soil beam specimens to traffic load simulations are tested through a newly developed fatigue loading mechanism. From the tests conducted it was observed that the soil beam specimen treated with coir fiber showed increased fatigue life and enhanced strength characteristics as compared to one without the coir fiber. The study helps to determine the optimum fiber content to be added to the soil to improve the fatigue life under repeated traffic loading conditions.