Mechanical Properties of Soft Clay Soil Reinforced by Carbon Fibers

Mohammed Jaber, EL-Hussein; Kenawi, Mamdouh Abbas; Abu Zeid, Mahmoud Mohamed

doi:10.21608/svusrc.2023.187467.1095

Mechanical Properties of Soft Clay Soil Reinforced by Carbon Fibers

Document Type : Original research articles

Authors

¹ South Valley University - College of Engineering - Department of Civil Engineering

² Civil Eng., Dept., Suhag University, Suhag, Egypt.

³ Civil Eng., Dept., South Valley University, Qena 83523, Egypt .

10.21608/svusrc.2023.187467.1095

Abstract

One of the problematic soils that frequently causes many problems to the structures is soft clay, due to its low shear strength and high compressibility. This paper examined the effect of the addition of randomly distributed carbon fibers (CF) on the mechanical properties of soft clay soil. Reinforced clay samples consist of fibers randomly mixed with dry clay with different percentages of carbon fibers and the addition of the optimum water content to conduct tests on them. Carbon fibers were added at (0.2%, 0.4%, 0.6%, 0.8%, and 1%) of the dry weight of the soil. Laboratory tests were performed on Carbon fiber-reinforced soil samples, including consistency limits, unconfined compression tests, compaction tests, and direct shear tests. The results indicated an improvement in the mechanical properties of the soft clay soil, where the unconfined compressive strength and soil cohesion increased by 105.99% and 70.73 %, respectively, compared to the unreinforced soil. The results also showed that the optimum fiber content that gives the highest strength is (0.6%).

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