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Transportation Geotechnics 2 (2015) 2029

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Transportation Geotechnics
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/trgeo

Evaluation of lateritic soil stabilized with Arecanut coir


for low volume pavements
B.M. Lekha , S. Goutham, A.U.R. Shankar
Department of Civil Engineering, National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Surathkal, India

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 7 April 2014
Revised 1 September 2014
Accepted 5 September 2014
Available online 17 September 2014
Keywords:
SoilcementArecanut coir
UCS
CBR
Fatigue life
Durability
KENPAVE

a b s t r a c t
Soil stabilization is a common method used by engineers and designers to enhance the
properties of soil with different stabilizers. From ancient times, usage of natural ber in soil
as reinforcement is an effective technology adopted. This paper presents the effect of
including randomly spaced Arecanut coir to the soil mix. The engineering properties and
bearing capacity of a soil get enhanced by stabilizing it with Arecanut coir and a binding
material (cement). The information available on experiments and research on the behavior
of soil cement mixtures were collected and a few studies conducted on ber reinforcement
were referred. The current study mainly focuses on the durability test and physical evaluation of soil cement mixtures reinforced with Arecanut coir. Coir content was varied from
0.2% to 1% with an increment of 0.2%. For further improvement, a uniform dosage of 3%
cement was added to soil. Laboratory tests including the Unconned Compressive Strength
(UCS), California Bearing Ratio (CBR), durability and fatigue behavior, were conducted as
per standards. The test results indicated that the improvement in characteristics of the soil
cement coir mixtures were functions of coir dosage, soil type and curing days. Durability
test satised at 1% Arecanut coir with 3% cement. The stressstrain values were determined and damage analysis was conducted for the higher dosage of Arecanut coir using
KENPAVE software. From the results it is observed that, the Arecanut coir reinforced
cement soil mix can be used for low volume roads (trafc 61 million standard axles)
and few design cases have been discussed.
2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Introduction
Subgrade is a structure formed by natural or borrowed
soil, on which other granular layers of pavement such as
sub-base, base and surface courses are laid. The quality
and stability of subgrade is a major factor responsible for
the adequate performance and service of any road during
its life span. Lateritic soils have been found in the coastal
Corresponding author at: Department of Civil Engineering, National
Institute of Technology Karnataka, Surathkal, Srinivasnagar P.O., Mangalore 575025, India.
E-mail addresses: lekhabm@gmail.com (B.M. Lekha), gouthamsarang@
gmail.com (S. Goutham), aurshankar@gmail.com (A.U.R. Shankar).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.trgeo.2014.09.001
2214-3912/ 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

region, along the Konkan belt of India. High rainfall,


temperature and humidity with alternative wet and dry
period, which are ideal conditions for laterization, makes
nearly 40% of the soils in the area laterites. Its color ranges
from red to yellowish red and depth from 30 to 150 cm.
The laterites have been mostly originated from igneous
rocks and are well drained residues with the presence of
excessive Iron and Aluminum.
India is considered as the largest Arecanut producing
country in the world. The total area under cultivation is
264,000 hectares and the annual production is 313,000
metric tonnes, with the states Karnataka and Kerala
accounting for nearly 72% of total production. Among all
the natural ber-reinforcing materials, Arecanut bre

B.M. Lekha et al. / Transportation Geotechnics 2 (2015) 2029

appears to be a promising material because it is inexpensive, abundantly available and the crop is very high potential perennial. The husk of the Arecanut is a hard brous
portion covering the endosperm. It constitutes 3045% of
the total volume of the fruit. Areca husk bers are predominantly composed of hemicelluloses.
The concept of soil reinforcement was rst developed by
Vidal (1996). It was established that the introduction of
reinforcement elements in a soil mass increases the shear
resistance of the soil matrix. Lekha and Sreedevi (2005)
studied on coir ber for stabilization of weak subgrade soils,
which included treating the weak soil with coir bre at different quantities and studying the changes in Optimum
Moisture Content (OMC), Maximum Dry Density (MDD)
and California Bearing Ratio (CBR) values. The OMC was
found to be increased with the increase in the percentage
of coir bre content and correspondingly, MDD decreased.
Tang et al. (2007) investigated the effects of discrete short
polypropylene ber (PP-ber) on the strength and mechanical behavior of uncemented and cemented clayey soil. The
test results indicated that the inclusion of ber reinforcement within uncemented and cemented soil caused
increase in the Unconned Compressive Strength (UCS),
shear strength and axial strain at failure, decrease in the
stiffness and the loss of post-peak strength, and change in
the behavior of cemented soils from brittle to more ductile.
Kumar and Singh (2008) tried different combinations of
polypropylene ber and y ash on soil. It was observed
that the addition of ber to soil satisfy all the geotechnical
properties to meet the requirements of sub base layer.
Bijayananda et al. (2011) conducted a series of laboratory
soaked and unsoaked CBR tests on randomly oriented ber
reinforced and unreinforced specimens of clayey soil, compacted at OMC and MDD. Coir ber has been used as a reinforcing material to investigate its benecial use in rural
road subgrade soil. From CBR test results, the engineering
performance of coir ber inclusion was examined. The
results indicated that the inclusion of coir ber enhanced
the CBR strength of the soil specimens signicantly. Clayey
soils mixed with bers showed remarkable increase in the
CBR strength in comparison with the same soils without
ber inclusions. That is, randomly oriented discrete ber
reinforcements in clayey subgrade offered higher resistance to penetration than unreinforced one, under similar
loading conditions. Shankar et al. (2012) studied on lithomargic clay stabilized with different percentages of sand
and coir and improvement in almost all properties was
observed. The CBR both in soaked and unsoaked condition,
increased as the percentage of sand increased from 0 to 40
and coir from 0 to 0.5. When the sand content increased
from 0 to 40%, the UCS values of blended soil for both light
and modied compaction densities increased up to a certain limit, whereas, the increase of coir content from 0 to
0.5% resulted in a continuous increase in UCS. Even though
Arecanut coir is a biodegradable material, according to
Ramaswamy and Aziz (1989) its strength and condition
beyond a period of one year after placement should not
be of any concern as by that time the coir would have
already played a very important role in providing a selfsustaining subgrade for most types of soils. The loss of
strength of the coir with time can be well compensated

21

by the gain in strength of the subgrade within the same


time frame.
Kar and Pradhan (2012) studied on soil stabilized with
y ash and ber reinforced y ash for low volume roads.
Soaked CBR values for reinforced y ash soil showed good
improvement. A study by Sarbaz et al. (2014) on soil specimens reinforced with palm bers and bitumen coated bers
showed that palm bers signicantly increases the CBR
strength of the sand specimens. Amadi (2014) conducted
a series of durability tests on black cotton soil with cement
kiln dust and quarry nes, and the results observed for
higher dosage of these stabilizers satised the durability
criteria. Maheshwari et al. (2012) conducted a series of
laboratory tests on unreinforced and ber reinforced black
cotton soil with different amount of bers and there was a
signicant increase in CBR value with the inclusion of bers.
As per Indian Road Congress (IRC) standard IRC 37-2001, the
exible pavement sections resting on ber reinforced soil
for trafc volumes of 1150 msa were designed and modeled using nite element software Plaxis 2D. Considerable
reduction in deformation was obtained on the top of subgrade due to reinforcing of subgrade soil using bers.
Lekha et al. (2013) studied on laterite soil using Zycosoil
chemical, and analysis conducted in KENPAVE software
showed that Water Bound Macadam (WBM) can be
replaced with treated soil for low volume roads.
Many researchers have tried to investigate the eld performance of soils stabilized with randomly added bers
(Grogan et al., 1994, Newman et al., 2008, Hufenusa et al.,
2006 Santoni et al., 2001, Zhang et al., 2003). Santoni and
Webster (2001) reported ber stabilization as an effective
method for military aireld and road applications based
on the eld test conducted on sandy soil stabilized with
bers. For mixing bers with the sand uniformly, a self-propelled rotary mixer was used. The sand ber layer was
turned over with the front end loader and four passes were
provided with the mixer to obtain a proper sand-ber mix
throughout the layer. Tingle et al. (2002) also followed this
methodology for mixing bers and sand in the eld, and
performed full-scale eld tests.
No study has been reported on the usage of Arecanut
coir bre for stabilization of soil. Since Arecanut crops
are available abundantly in Dakshina Kannada District of
Karnataka, a laboratory study has been carried out to study
the properties of lateritic soil with this bre and cement.
The main objective of this study was to determine the contribution of Arecanut coir to the shear strength of lateritic
soil. A series of tests were carried out to investigate the
effect of coir content on the behavior of soil.
Materials and methods
Lateritic soil
Lateritic soil was procured from NITK Surathkal campus, Dakshina Kannada District, India. The geotechnical
properties like specic gravity, soil classication, consistency limits, compaction characteristics, UCS and CBR values were conducted as per the relevant Indian standard
procedures. The test results are tabulated in Table 1. From
the grain size distribution curve in Fig. 1, it can be depicted

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B.M. Lekha et al. / Transportation Geotechnics 2 (2015) 2029

Table 1
Properties of lateritic soil.
S. No.

Property

Consistency limits (%)


Liquid limit
Plastic limit
Plasticity index
Shrinkage limit
Compaction properties
Modied compaction
MDD (g/cc)
OMC (%)
Standard compaction
MDD (g/cc)
OMC (%)
UCS (kPa)
Standard proctor compaction
Modied compactor compaction
CBR value (%)
Modied proctor compaction
OMC condition
Soaked condition
Standard proctor compaction
OMC condition
Soaked condition

Value
56
29
27
28

1.69
17
Plate 1. Arecanut coir.

1.63
19.2

Table 2
Physical properties of Arecanut coir.

138
206

5.26
3.18

Diameter
(mm)

Length
(mm)

Density
(g/cc)

Young modulus
(kN/mm2)

Tensile
strength (kN/m2)

0.35

28

1.09

27

2.2

3.14
2.04
Table 3
Chemical composition of Arecanut coir.

that the soil consists of 9% gravel, 44% sand, 32% silt and
15% clay. As per Indian standard classication the lateritic
soil belongs to SC group (clayey sand) and having a specic
gravity of 2.45.

Cellulose
(%)

Hemicellulose
(%)

Lignin
(%)

Ash
(%)

Pectin
(%)

Wax
(%)

Nil

3564.8

1324.8

4.4

Nil

Nil

Arecanut coir

Fig. 1. Grain size distribution curve.

GRAVEL SIZE

0.1
PARTICLE SIZE (mm)

COARSE SAND SIZE

MEDIUM SAND SIZE

0.01

FINE SAND SIZE

SILT SIZE

CLAY SIZE
0.001

100
95
90
85
80
75
70
65
60
55
50
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
10

PER CENT FINER (N)

The quantity of coir to be used is an important parameter. Different quantities of coir can cause different effect
in the same soil sample. Insufcient quantity of coir may
lead to less stabilization of the soil whereas excess quantity may result in ineffective stabilization and decrease
the strength of the soil. Hence, to determine the optimum
quantity of coir the CBR and UCS tests were conducted on
each of the soil sample with varying percentages of coir by
weight of soil. The different percentages of coir considered
in the present study are listed in Table 4.

Arecanut coir was collected from Puttur, Dakshina Kannada District, Karnataka State, India. The dry Arecanut
shells, which are brown in color, were collected for the
present work and the coir from the shell was extracted
manually in the laboratory. Plate 1 shows the physical
appearance of Arecanut coir. The physical and chemical
compositions of Arecanut coir are tabulated in Tables 2
and 3. The aspect ratio and specic gravity of Arecanut coir
considered for the study are 80 and 0.67 respectively.

B.M. Lekha et al. / Transportation Geotechnics 2 (2015) 2029


Table 4
Dosage of Arecanut coir.
Dosage

% by weight of soil

Weight per 1 kg of soil (g)

1
2
3
4
5

0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0

2
4
6
8
10

23

ing periods by maintaining the moisture content. After completion of curing period, specimens for soaked CBR test were
placed in water for 4 days and then taken out and allowed to
drain before being loaded. In case of eld construction, the
soil can be graded rst and then it can be mixed with Arecanut coir and cement in dry state using graders/dozers/rotavators, etc. (Santoni and Webster, 2001).
Durability test

Cement
In this investigation, 3% of OPC 43 grade cement, collected from the local market, was used based on earlier
studies.
Stabilization using Arecanut coir with 3% cement
The soil mixed with coir does not require any curing as
there is no chemical reaction takes place between soil and
coir. In the present study the soil has been stabilized further by adding 3% cement to enhance the bonding and
strength. The addition of cement enhances the bonding
and friction between soil and coir. The strength of the soil
in terms of CBR, UCS and fatigue life has been evaluated for
3, 7 and 28 days curing periods.
Sample preparation
The preparation of soil specimens for UCS and CBR tests
in laboratory was carried out according to the standard procedure. CBR tests were carried out under both moist and
soaked conditions. OMC, obtained from the modied proctor test, was about 17% for plain soil specimens. To prepare
soil-coir mixtures, required quantity of Arecanut coir was
added and thoroughly mixed with dry soil and then water
was added in two stages to prepare more homogenous specimens. In the rst stage, half of the water was added to the
mixture, followed by 15 min continuous hand mixing and
then the remaining water was added, followed by 5 min
hand mixing. In the case of soil cement coir mix, dry soil,
cement and coir were added and mixed together and then
required quantity of water was added. For each mixture
specimens with different dosages, corresponding OMC and
MDD was maintained. Samples were cured for varying cur-

Durability is dened as the ability of a material to retain


stability and integrity over years of exposure to the destructive forces of weathering and hence it is one of the most
important factors for any stabilized soil (Dempsey and
Thompson, 1968). A good stabilizer should help, not only
in gaining the strength, but also to retain its bonding with
soil during the seasonal changes. Hence, checking durability
is vital before recommending any stabilizer for practical
applications. There are mainly two tests for durability
WetDry (WD) and FreezeThaw (FT). For the present study,
the procedures as per ASTM D559,1996 and ASTM
D560,1996 were adopted. Soil specimens with 76 mm
height and 35 mm diameter were prepared and then they
were subjected to 7 days moist curing. The test contains
12 cycles of each WD and FT cycles. In wet cycle, specimens
were submerged in water at room temperature for 5 h, then
its dimensions and weight were taken, and in dry cycle, the
specimens were dried at a temperature of 71 C for 42 h.
Then specimens were thoroughly brushed parallel and
again dimensions and weight were taken. This procedure
is repeated for 12 cycles. In Freeze cycle, samples were
placed in water-saturated felt pads and stood on carriers
in a freezer at a temperature not higher than 10 C for
22 h. Thawing was done by keeping them in a moisture
room for 22 h and dimensions and weight were taken after
brushing. The maximum weight loss of specimen for WD
and FT should not be more than 14% after 12 cycles. Plate
2 depicts the samples during wetting and thawing cycles.
Fatigue test
The fatigue tests were conducted on repeated load testing machine shown in Plate 3. All experiments were conducted on specimens cured for predetermined period.

Plate 2. Durability samples on WetDry and FreezeThaw test.

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B.M. Lekha et al. / Transportation Geotechnics 2 (2015) 2029

 The data acquisition system continuously recorded


the vertical deformation of the test specimen with
cycles of loading until the failure and the output
was saved in a result le.
 The failure pattern of the test specimen was visually
observed.
Pavement design

Plate 3. Fatigue testing machine.

The loading level in the present study was taken as a fraction of the respective UCS value of each specimen at the
same condition of dosages. The untreated and treated soil
specimens with varying curing periods were tested for
repeated loading with 1/3rd, 1/2 and 2/3rd of their UCS
values.
Test procedure
 The cylindrical specimen (38 mm diameter and
75 mm height) was mounted on the loading frame
and the deection sensing transducers (Linear Variable Deection Transducer LVDT) were set to read
the deformation of the specimen. The load cell was
brought in contact with the specimen surface.
 In the control unit, through the dedicated software,
the selected loading stress level, frequency of loading and the type of wave form were fed into the
loading device.
 The loading system and the data acquisition system
were switched on simultaneously and the process of
fatigue load application on the test specimen was
initiated.
 The repeated loading, at the designated excitation
level (i.e. at the selected stress level and frequency)
was continued till the failure of the test specimen.

The analysis was done using the computer package software called KENPAVE for pavement design and analysis,
developed by Yang (2004) at the University of Kentucky.
The KENLAYER computer program applies only to exible
pavements with no joints or rigid layers. The backbone of
KENLAYER is the solution for an elastic multilayer system
under a circular loaded area. The software does linear elastic multi-layer analysis to obtain the results including
stresses, strains and deections. It can be applied to layered systems under single, dual, dual-tandem and dual-tridem wheel congurations with different layer behaviors
like linear elastic, nonlinear elastic and visco-elastic. Damage analysis can be made by dividing each year into a maximum of 12 periods, each with a different set of material
properties. Each period can have different loading conditions, with single or multiple wheeled. The damage caused
by fatigue cracking and permanent deformation in each
period over all load groups can be summed up to evaluate
the design life.
There are several input parameters for analysis of pavement in KENPAVE and some of them are listed below.
 Number of layers and thickness of each layer
 Materials like linear, non-linear, visco-elastic and
combined
 Vertical coordinates for analysis
 Elastic modulus and Poissons ratio of each layer
 Response points
 Contact pressure, contact radius and spacing of wheels
The pavement structure was
adopted from
IRC:SP:72,2007, for a CBR of 34% (case S2) and four trafc
load cases, as tabulated in Table 5. The structure consists of
a thin bituminous surface course, a WBM layer, a granular

Table 5
Pavement design catalog as per IRC: SP: 72-2007 and modied case.
Subgrade strength (CBR)

Cumulative ESAL applications


100,000 to 200,000 (T4)

Poor (CBR = 3 to 4%) (S2)

Modied (CBR = 20%)

Modied subgrade;
All thickness are in mm.

200,000 to 300,000 (T5)

75
100
100
100
75
100
75
100

WBM;

600,000 to 1,000,000 (T7)

75
100
100

75
150

75
150

150

100
150

150

75
100
100

75
125

150

granular sub-base;

300,000 to 600,000 (T6)

100
150

bituminous treated WBM.

150
75
150
150
125

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B.M. Lekha et al. / Transportation Geotechnics 2 (2015) 2029

base course and a sub-base layer above the subgrade. For


the analysis, single axle single wheel load was considered;
the contact radius and contact pressure on circular loaded
area are 17 cm and 560 kPa. Poissons ratio of 0.5 was
adopted for surface layer and 0.4 for WBM, Granular Sub
Base (GSB) and modied soil layers. Resilient modulus of
subgrade and granular layers, fatigue and rutting values
were calculated using Eqs. (1)(5) recommended by the
IRC: 37,2012.

MR 10  CBR

for CBR  5

MR 17:6  CBR0:64

for CBR > 5

MR Modulus of subgrade (MPa); CBR California Bearing


Ratio of subgrade (%).

Egb MR  0:2  h

0:45

Egb Modulus of granular base (MPa); h Thickness of


granular base (mm).

NF 2:021  104 1=t 1=Ebs 0:854

NR 4:1656  108 1=z 4:5337

NR Number of cumulative standard axles to produce rutting of 20 mm; ez Vertical subgrade strain (micro strain).
For modied design, mixture with soil3% cement1%
Arecanut coir combination with 19% soaked CBR was
adopted, since it passed durability criteria. Modied pavement thickness was arrived using trial and error method.
The economic thickness of pavement sections have been

Effect of coir content on compaction


Compaction tests were conducted on lateritic soil reinforced with different percentages of Arecanut coir for both
modied and standard proctor cases. The results are tabulated in Table 6. It shows that, as the coir percentage
increases, the MDD decreases, due to lateritic soil being
heavy in weight compared with the coir and was replaced
by the light weight coir. Therefore, the density of the soil
sample decreases. But on the other hand the OMC
increases as the percentage of coir increases, since the coir
absorbs more water.
Effect of coir content on UCS
The tests were conducted for both standard and modied compaction cases. The test results are depicted in
Fig. 2. As the percentage of coir increased, the UCS value
also increased up to a certain limit and beyond that it
slightly decreased. The results in Table 7 indicate that,
the optimum strength was obtained at 0.6% coir and 3%
cement content, and further increase in coir leads to
decrease in strength.

Table 7
Variation of UCS with curing period for soil with cement and coir.
Dosage

Table 6
Compaction test results.

UCS (kPa)
3 days

Modied compaction

Standard compaction

MDD (g/cc)

OMC (%)

MDD (g/cc)

OMC (%)

1.69
1.68
1.66
1.64
1.58
1.47

17.0
19.6
20.0
20.6
21.0
23.0

1.63
1.63
1.59
1.55
1.51
1.43

19.2
19.9
20.5
21.2
22.2
23.8

Modified Compaction

300

LS + 3%
LS + 3%
LS + 3%
LS + 3%
LS + 3%
LS + 3%

cement + 0% coir
cement + 0.2% coir
cement + 0.4% coir
cement + 0.6% coir
cement + 0.8% coir
cement + 1.0% coir

7 days
S

373
441
532
559
501
475

288
350
456
502
291
295

489
520
615
717
608
543

328
376
495
514
417
383

540
602
687
896
704
622

386
485
522
600
519
470

LS: lateritic soil; M: modied compaction; S: standard compaction.

Standard Compaction

200
150
100
50
0
LS

28 days

250
UCS (kPa)

Lateritic soil (LS)


LS + 0.2% coir
LS + 0.4% coir
LS + 0.6% coir
LS + 0.8% coir
LS + 1.0% coir

Results and discussion

NF Number of cumulative standard axles to produce 20%


cracked surface area; et Tensile strain at the bottom of
bituminous surfacing (micro strain); Ebs Elastic modulus
of bituminous surfacing (MPa).

Sample

decided based on the critical strains, i.e., horizontal tensile


strain at the bottom of bituminous layer and vertical compressive strain at the top of subgrade developed in the
pavement layers.

LS + 0.2% coir LS + 0.4% coir LS + 0.6% coir LS + 0.8% coir LS + 1.0% coir
Soil Mix

Fig. 2. UCS values for Arecanut treated with 7 days curing period.

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B.M. Lekha et al. / Transportation Geotechnics 2 (2015) 2029

14
12
CBR (%)

10
MC at OMC

MC at Soaked

SC at OMC

SC at Soaked

2
0
0

0.2

0.4
0.6
0.8
Areca nut coir Content (%)
MC : Modified compaction; SC : Standard Compaction

Fig. 3. CBR values for Arecanut coir treated soil with 7 days curing period.

Effect of coir content on CBR

up of bond between soil mix. The increase in CBR value


can also be attributed to the better packing of different
fractions.

There was an increase in the CBR value as percentage of


coir increased as in Fig. 3. It is because, the addition of coir
imparts some amount of shear resistance to the soil. The
increase in the strength was less, due to lack of chemical
reaction taking place between Arecanut coir and lateritic
soil. Good improvement in CBR value was observed with
constant dosage of 3% cement from Table 8. As the curing
period increased, the CBR values also increased and the
maximum CBR value was obtained at 0.6% replacement
of soil by coir, and then it decreased. Increase in CBR value
may be because the coir offered better resistance to the
penetration of the plunger. The resistance may be made

Effect of coir content on durability test


The soilcementcoir mixtures passed the WetDry criteria only for mixture with 1.0% coir. FreezeThaw samples
could withstand the 12 cycles within 14% weight loss for
all mixtures. In general, the coir modication improved
the durability performance of the mixtures and greater
the percentage of cement and coir content, the durability
was better. The test results are tabulated in Table 9.

Table 8
Variation of CBR with curing period.
Dosage

CBR (%)
3 days

LS + 3%
LS + 3%
LS + 3%
LS + 3%
LS + 3%

cement + 0.2%
cement + 0.4%
cement + 0.6%
cement + 0.8%
cement + 1.0%

coir
coir
coir
coir
coir

7 days

28 days

OMC

Soaked

OMC

Soaked

OMC

Soaked

30
36
39
31
24

16
18
24
21
17

50
54
63
50
45

18
24
40
24
19

51
55
64
52
46

19
26
42
25
20

Table 9
Durability test results for stabilized soil.
No. of cycles

Percentage weight loss


Dosage 1

LS
1
2
3
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

Dosage 2

Dosage 3

Dosage 4

Dosage 5

Collapsed
2.04
Collapsed

8.98

1.78
0.67
Collapsed

9.93
12.94

1.21
0.58
0.94
Collapsed

10.23
11.56
14.32

1.86
2.12
1.28
5.64
7.61
9.85
Collapsed

7.69
8.95
10.24
12.38
14.56
16.58

2.36
3.26
2.52
0.50
1.13
3.57
9.67
10.25
11.18
12.66

8.91
9.16
10.72
13.33
14.68
19.97
20.12
21.45
21.98
22.23

27

B.M. Lekha et al. / Transportation Geotechnics 2 (2015) 2029


Table 10
Fatigue test results of cement and Arecanut treated soil.
Standard compaction
UCS (kg)

Modied compaction

Applied load (kg)

3% cement + 0% Arecanut coir


45
15
23
30
3% cement + 0.2% Arecanut coir
56
19
28
37
3% cement + 0.4% Arecanut coir
62
21
31
41
3% cement + 0.6% Arecanut coir
71
24
36
47
3% cement + 0.8% Arecanut coir
63
21
32
42
3% cement + 1% Arecanut coir
56
19
28
37

0.33
0.50
0.67
0.33
0.50
0.67
0.33
0.50
0.67
0.33
0.50
0.67
0.33
0.50
0.67
0.33
0.50
0.67

No. of failure cycle

UCS (kg)

Applied load (kg)

No. of failure cycle

14,098
13,985
13,241

58

19
29
39

36,024
35,876
35,241

15,758
15,023
14,322

60

20
30
40

36,453
35,985
35,324

25,874
24,925
24,764

72

24
36
48

56,672
56,124
55,824

25,965
25,572
24,897

84

28
42
56

66,947
66,452
66,325

36,045
35,982
35,421

73

24
37
49

67,087
66,941
66,547

46,125
46,010
45,872

65

22
33
44

77,104
76,854
76,358

Table 11
Displacement values using KENPAVE for conventional and modied soil.
Trafc conditions

S2T4

S2T5

S2T6

S2T7

Vertical coordinate
(cm)

Vertical displacement
(cm)

0
7.5
17.5
27.5
37.5
0
7.5
17.5
27.5
42.5
0
7.5
22.5
32.5
47.5
0
7.5
22.5
37.5
52.5

0
7.5
17.5
25
35
0
7.5
17.5
27.5
42.5
0
7.5
20
30
45
0
7.5
27.5
37.5
50

0.181
0.174
0.153
0.134
0.116
0.177
0.170
0.149
0.129
0.105
0.160
0.153
0.127
0.112
0.093
0.144
0.139
0.116
0.098
0.083

0.154
0.150
0.136
0.125
0.112
0.148
0.144
0.130
0.119
0.100
0.130
0.128
0.113
0.102
0.088
0.119
0.116
0.102
0.090
0.078

80
Vertical stress, kPa

Stress ratio (%)

Conventional

Modified

60
40
20
0
S2T4

S2T5
S2T6
Traffic Conditions

S2T7

Fig. 4. Vertical stress values over subgrade for different trafc conditions.

Table 12
Damage analysis values for conventional and modied soil.
Trafc conditions

S2T4
S2T5
S2T6
S2T7

Nf (in millions)

Nr (in millions)

16.2
15.0
24.4
30.8

76.2
67.0
116.0
121.0

0.053
0.122
0.348
0.913

0.072
0.172
0.526
1.420

C conventional; M modied.

C conventional; M modied.

Effect of coir content on fatigue life


Repeated loading test was conducted to determine the
fatigue behavior of untreated and treated soil samples.
The UCS samples, subjected to 28 days moist curing, were
tested at frequency of 1 Hz and rest period of 0.1 s, and the
results are tabulated in Table 10. Fatigue strength is related
to the number of load cycles that the material can withstand at a given stress level. Addition of cement and coir
to soil increased its fatigue strength signicantly. It is

observed that the fatigue life of the soil samples tested


was inuenced by the dosage of coir used. At lower stress
levels the specimens exhibited a higher fatigue life and
with further increase in stress level, the fatigue life of stabilized specimen reduced considerably.
KENPAVE analysis
In KENPAVE software, thickness of different layers,
material properties and loading conditions are provided

B.M. Lekha et al. / Transportation Geotechnics 2 (2015) 2029

4.0
3.5
3.0
2.5
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
0.0

Conventional

Modified

No. of years

Damage Ratio (%)

28

S2T4

S2T5

S2T6

1.6
1.4
1.2
1.0
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0.0

Conventional

S2T7

S2T4

Traffic Conditions

S2T5

Modified

S2T6

S2T7

Traffic Conditions

Fig. 5. Variations of design life damage ratio for different trafc conditions.

Conventional

2.50E-03

Modified
CS - Compressive Strain
TS - Tensile Strain

Strain

2.00E-03

1.50E-03

1.00E-03

5.00E-04

0.00E+00
CS

TS
S2T4

CS

TS
S2T5

CS

TS
S2T6

CS

TS
S2T7

Traffic Conditions
Fig. 6. Compressive and tensile strain values for different trafc conditions.

Fig. 7. A view of LGRAPH in KENPAVE.

as general input parameters and coefcients of rutting,


fatigue, etc. can also be provided for detailed analysis.
Damage ratio, the ratio of actual load repetitions to the

allowed repetitions, is a crucial parameter in pavement


design. In no case, the actual load repetitions shall be more
than the allowed repetitions (i.e., damage ratio greater

B.M. Lekha et al. / Transportation Geotechnics 2 (2015) 2029

than one), which indicates the pavement failure (Deepthi


et al., 2013). Stress and displacement values were generated at all the layer interfaces as presented in Table 11.
All the stress characteristics were reduced when the conventional layers in the standard cases were replaced with
the stabilized soil layers. The results show that the modied stress values are decreased as compared to the conventional one, even after reducing the layer thickness. In
the case of S2T4, even though the thickness is reduced
from 37.5 to 35 cm for modied pavement structure, the
stresses over the subgrade is less than the conventional
pavement and this ensures that the adopted thickness is
sufcient enough to bear the corresponding trafc loading
presented in Fig. 4.
Any pavement structure shall sustain only if its subgrade is located 500 mm above the high ood level in
any season. Damage analysis results are presented in
Table 12 and Figs. 5 and 6. Table 12 shows that fatigue life
is much higher than rutting life, which indicates that critical failure of the pavement is due to fatigue. Both compressive and tensile strain values are reduced in the
modied soil for all trafc conditions. From Fig. 5 it is
observed that the damage ratio is more for conventional
method, and its reduction is remarkable in the case of stabilized soil. Similarly, design life is also observed to be signicantly enhanced for stabilized soils. Fig. 7 presents the
view of LGRAPH in KENPAVE.
Conclusions
Based on the tests conducted in the laboratory the following conclusions have been drawn
 Addition of Arecanut coir to the lateritic soil
resulted in medium improvement in the soil properties and the optimum content was found to be 0.6%
by weight of soil.
 The addition of Arecanut coir along with 3% of
cement by weight of soil resulted in signicant
increase in the UCS and CBR values.
 WD and FT cycles caused variations in volume, but
it was more signicant during dryingwetting
cycles.
 Fatigue life was observed to be increased for stabilized soil and the enhancement was improving with
coir dosage.
 As per the KENPAVE analysis, the stress and displacement values were getting reduced by 610%
and 418% respectively for pavement sections with
stabilized soil.
 Enhanced life span of modied pavement structure
was proved from damage analysis, with fatigue life
and rutting life improvement by 45 times and
1.41.6 times respectively.
 This Arecanut coir soil stabilization will be more
economical since it is naturally available as an agricultural waste and also only a small amount of
cement is sufcient to achieve the optimum

29

stabilization. Hence, overall cost of the road construction can be reduced while comparing with
the conventional methods.

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