Construction and Building Materials 16 (2002) 123–131

Effect of random inclusion of sisal fibre on strength behaviour of soil

J. Prabakara,*, R.S. Sridharb
a
Regional Research laboratory (CSIR), Bhopal, India
b
Coimbatore Institute of Technology, Coimbatore, India

Received 21 July 2000; received in revised form 23 July 2001; accepted 9 January 2002

Abstract

Construction of building and other civil engineering structures on weak or soft soil is highly risky on geo-technical grounds
because such soil is susceptible to differential settlements, poor shear strength and high compressibility. Improvement of load
bearing capacity of the soil may be undertaken by a variety of ground improvement techniques like stabilisation of soil, adoption
of reinforced earth technique etc. Reinforced earth technique is considered as an effective ground improvement method because
of its cost effectiveness, easy adaptability and reproducibility. Therefore, in the present investigation, sisal fibre has been chosen
as the reinforcement material and it was randomly included in to the soil at four different percentages of fibre content, i.e. 0.25,
0.5, 0.75 and 1% by weight of raw soil. Four different lengths of fibre, i.e. 10, 15, 20 and 25 mm are also considered as one of
the parameters of this study. The main objective of this investigation had been focused on the strength behaviour of the soil
reinforced with randomly included sisal fibre. The reinforced soil samples were subjected to compaction and triaxial compression
tests. The results of these tests have clearly shown a significant improvement in the failure deviator stress, Shear strength
parameters (C and f) of the studied soil. It can be concluded that sisal fibre can be considered as a good earth reinforcement
material. 䊚 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Sisal fibre; Reinforcement; Soil; Cohesion; Friction

1. Introduction same technique, random inclusion of various types of

The concept of earth reinforcement is an ancient
technique and demonstrated abundantly in nature by
animals, birds and the action of tree roots. Constructions
using this techniques are known to have existed in the
fifth and fourth millenniums BC w4x. This concept is
used for the improvement of certain desired properties
of soil like bearing capacity, shear strength (C and f),
permeability characteristics, etc. This concept and prin-
ciple was first developed by Vidal w7x by which he
demonstrated that the introduction of reinforcing ele-
ments in a soil mass increases the shear resistance of
the medium. Presently, the soil reinforcement technique
is well established and is used in variety of applications
like improvement of bearing capacity, filter and drainage
control, etc., conventional methods of reinforcement
consists of continuous inclusions of strips, fabrics, and
grids into an earth mass. But as a modification of the
*Corresponding author. Fax: q91-755-587042.
E-mail address: jpraba@yahoo.com (J. Prabakar).
fibres is also considered as a soil reinforcement material.
These fibres act to interlock particles and group of
particles in a unitary coherent matrix. This work inves-
tigates the use of sisal fibre for similar purpose.
Soil mass reinforced with randomly distributed dis-
crete fibres resembles the conventional earth reinforce-
ment in many of its properties. The preparation is quite
similar to that of admixture stabilisation. Mostly the
discrete fibres are simply added and mixed with the
soil, much the same as cement, lime or any other
additives.
One of the main advantages of randomly distributed
fibres is the maintenance of strength isotropy and
absence of potential failure plane, that can develop
parallel to the oriented reinforcement w1x. Very limited
information has been reported on the use of randomly
distributed discrete fibres for soil reinforcement, e.g.
some limited information available of the use of jute
and coir fibres w6x. Metal fibres, metal strips and
artificial fibres of polymer compound had been consid-

0950-0618/02/$ - see front matter 䊚 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 9 5 0 - 0 6 1 8 Ž 0 2 . 0 0 0 0 8 - 9
124 J. Prabakar, R.S. Sridhar / Construction and Building Materials 16 (2002) 123–131

Table 1 specific gravity and compaction behaviour are also

Engineering properties of soil used in the study studied besides the triaxial tests. This paper intended to
SL. Soil properties Values present the results of investigation to assess the useful-
no. (%) ness of sisal fibres as soil reinforcement material. It
mainly describes on effect of sisal fibre in soil, the
1. Specific gravity 2.71
compaction behaviour of soil, strength and deformation
2. Grain size analysis behaviour of such soil.
Gravel 0.0
Sand 6.38
Silt 78.48 2. Materials and experimental details
Clay 15.14
3. Consistency limit 2.1. Materials
Liquid limit 31.36
Plastic limit 17.47 For the present study, a C-f soil sample of wood
Plasticity index 14.09
brown colour was collected from Kasturiba Nagar on
4. I.S Classification CL Raisen Road, approximately 12 km from Bhopal railway
5. Compaction study 14.80 station. The soil sample was collected in polythene
Optimum moisture content 1.780 gycc gunny bags and then air-dried. Engineering properties
Maximum dry density of this soil are listed in Table 1. Sisal fibre used in this
6. Shear parameters study has been collected from Jagdalpur in Bastar Distt,
Cohesion 19 KNym2 of Madhya Pradesh. Special attention was given to
Angle of shearing resistance 90
select sisal fibre diversified from a single batch of sisal
crop of particular agricultural land in order to avoid
variations in the material properties. The sisal fibre was
ered useful as reinforcement material due to their uni- air dried to remove moisture from it. The physical and
form material properties and reproducibility. Only mechanical properties of the sisal fibre are presented in
recently, the natural fibres have tried in the field of soil Table 2. Untreated sisal fibres were used for experimen-
reinforcement w6x due to their affordable cost, strength, tal study.
friendly environmental nature and bulk availability. In
addition to these stated advantages it has some practical
2.2. Preparation of samples
drawbacks, such as reproducibility and biodegradability.
The problem of biodegradability can be effectively
overcome by applying chemical coatings on fibres using By conducting preliminary pilot experiments, four
polymer compounds. This is a proven solution for different lengths of fibre as 10, 15, 20 and 25 mm, were
biodegradability of natural fibres w5x. Though there are been chosen for this study. Each length of fibre was
plenty of natural materials available for being used a added to the soil at four different percentages, i.e. 0.25,
soil reinforcement material to improve certain engineer- 0.50, 0.75 and 1%. After 1%, the mixing of soil–fibre
ing properties of soil such as jute, coir, sisal, bamboo, was felt very difficult as the fibres are sticking together
wood, palm leaf, coconut leaf truck, coir dust, cotton to form lumps. This also caused pockets of low density.
and grass, etc., research workers are concentrating with So it has decided to stop with 1% fibre content. This
limited varieties of materials like bamboo, jute, and coir investigation reports the effect of (a) length and (b)
and other materials are presently left without consider- quantity of fibre on: (i) compaction; (ii) strength; (iii)
ation in the field of soil reinforcement. Out of these CBR; and (iv) swelling of the soil. Thus, 16 samples
unexperimented materials, sisal fibre has an attractive of soil specimens admixed with sisal were tested for
prospect of being used as a natural material for soil each of the above four properties. All the tests were
reinforcement in the forms of (a) simple fibres, (b) also extended to the unreinforced soil specimen as
geotextile, and (c) geosynthetics (after being given reference tests, to make comparison between the strength
chemical–thermal treatment).
Table 2
In order to understand completely the strength behav- Physical and mechanical properties of sisal fibre
iour of a non-expansive C-f soil randomly reinforced
with sisal fibre and also to assess the suitability of sisal SL. Properties Values
fibre as a reinforcement material, a series of experiments no.
were carried out on a non-expansive soil sample with 1. Unit weight 962 kgym3
different percentages of fibre inclusion. Undrained tri- 2. Specific gravity 0.962
axial tests are performed on sisal fibre reinforced soil to 3. Average diameter 0.25 mm
analyse the stress–strain behaviour of the innovative 4. Initial moisture loss 3.5%
5. Breaking tensile strength 286 Nymm2
material. Other important engineering properties like
 J. Prabakar, R.S. Sridhar / Construction and Building Materials 16 (2002) 123–131
Fig. 1. Effect of fibre length on maximum dry density of soil.
behaviour of unreinforced soil and to that of reinforced
soil.
2.3. Testing programme
Soil reinforced with randomly included sisal fibre had
been taken as the prime sample material for the present
investigation, in order to predict its behaviour under the
influence of fibre inclusion. As a prerequisite, the
engineering and physical properties (specific gravity,
liquid limit, plastic limit, IS classification and shear
strength parameters) of the particular soil selected for
this study were also determined in the laboratory accord-
ing to the relevant I.S.-2720 w2x. The following tests
were performed for all the 17 (one unreinforced sample
along with 16 fibre-reinforced samples) test samples.
2.3.1. Compaction test
A compaction test was carried out adopting the I.S.
light compaction method as specified in I.S. 2720 (Part
VII) w3x. Each soil sample was prepared by initial dry
mixing of raw soil (3 kg) and corresponding quantity
of fibre according to percentage (by weight of raw soil)
of fibre content. Then water was added and mixed again
until the water spreads all over the soil. The dry and
wet mixing of soil–fiber–water was carried out in a
non-porous metal tray in order to avoid water loss. All
the 17 test samples were subjected to this test and
respective optimum moisture content and maximum dry
density of all combinations were determined. Determi-
nation of water content was carried out by the oven
drying method. In this method there is a possibility of
sisal fibre being affected by high temperature. For this
purpose, ignition loss test was performed on the raw
sisal fibre and it was found that the loss of weight was
only due to the evaporation of initial moisture content
present in it. Further, no ash was found produced nor
the change of colour of sisal fibre at a temperature of
125
125 8C when heated for 36 h. This implies that the
results of water content tests were not affected by the
high temperature in the oven.
2.3.2. Undrained triaxial compression test
The conventional undrained triaxial compression test
was performed at a strain rate of 1.27 mmymin under
the confining pressures (s3) of 69, 138 and 207 kNy
m2. The remoulded soil specimens with and without
reinforcement were prepared in standard mould at the
optimum moisture content (14.8%) with maximum dry
density (1.780 gycm3) using I.S. light compaction. The
amount of fibre added was similar to that specified in
Section 3.1. The cylindrical shaped triaxial test speci-
mens were obtained by driving sample extruder and
specimens were ejected out and trimmed off so that the
finished dimensions of the specimen being 38 mm in
diameter and 76 mm in length. These specimens were
tested in triaxial testing machine under undrained
condition.
3. Results and discussions
The effect of sisal fibre addition in soil on compaction
shows that the shape of the compaction curves are
similar to that of unreinforced sample. For all samples,
the dry density increases with increase in water content
up to the point of optimum moisture content beyond
which increase in water content reduces the dry density.
The effect of fibre length on maximum dry density
of soil is shown in Fig. 1. For any particular percentage
of fibre content, dry density decreases with increase in
fibre length. Therefore, it implies that the maximum dry
density of the soil is decreases with increase in fibre
length. Maximum dry density is recorded for 10-mm
fibre included soil where it ranges from 1.775 to 1.760
gycm3, and maximum dry density is lowest in the case
of 25-mm fibre included soil where it ranges from 1.710
126 J. Prabakar, R.S. Sridhar / Construction and Building Materials 16 (2002) 123–131
Fig. 2. Effect of fibre content on maximum dry density of soil.
to 1.658 gycm3 in 25-mm density included soil, as it
reduced the maximum dry density by 6.85% to that of
the unreinforced soil.
3.1. Effect of fibre length of OMC
Addition of 10-mm fibre has led to an increase in
OMC compared to that of raw soil. A further increase
in fibre length causes a decrease in the OMC. The
maximum OMC (19.2%) is recorded for 10-mm fibre
length at 0.25% fibre content, and the lowest OMC in
the case of 25-mm fibre of 1% fibre content. Fig. 3
shows the relationship between fibre length and OMC.
The decrease in OMC by increasing fibre content may
be due to the presence of water content in sisal fibre.
This may be the reason for the initial increase in OMC
when fibre is included in the soil.
3.2. Effect of fibre content on maximum dry density
The effect of fibre content on maximum dry density
is presented in Fig. 2. For any particular fibre length,
an increase in fibre content causes a reduction in dry
density. As already explained this is due reduction of
average unit weight of the solids in the soil fibre mixture.
It is observed from Figs. 1 and 3 that the plot of
variation of dry density with respect to fibre length as
well as fibre content, is more or less parallel.
3.3. Effect of fibre content on OMC
The OMC is decreased with increase in fibre content.
The maximum OMC is recorded as 19.2% for 0.25%
fibre content, and as low as 16% for soil with 1% of
25-mm fibre. The initial inclusion of fibre at 0.25%
caused a sudden hike in the OMC than that of the
ordinary soil, and a further increase in fibre content
reduced the OMC. But in all cases, the OMC is greater
than that of raw soil. Addition of 1% fibre (25 mm)
caused a reduction of 16.67% in OMC. The effect of
fibre content on OMC is presented in Fig. 4.
3.4. Influence of fibre inclusion on shear strength
parameters
Both the length of fibre and percentage of fibre
content played an important role in the development of
shear strength parameters C and f of the fibre reinforced
soil. Table 3 shows the values of cohesion (C) mobilised
and angle of internal friction (f) of the reinforced soil.
It is observed that by increase in fibre content, the value
of cohesion increases, but beyond 0.75% reinforcement
the cohesion value drastically reduced. The maximum
value of cohesion observed in 0.75% reinforcement the
cohesion value drastically reduced. The maximum value
of cohesion observed in 0.75% fibre content of 20-mm
fibre as 66 kPa, which is 3.67 times more than that of
unreinforced soil. The lowest value of cohesion is in the
case of 10-mm fibre at 1% fibre content where it is 28
kPa, which is 1.56 times more than that of raw soil.
The influence of fibre length on the cohesion value also
significant as the length increases. The cohesion mobi-
lised by the fibre is maximum when the length of the
fibre is 20 mm. Of course there is no much variation in
the fraction angle as it ranges from 50 to 10, and the
variation is not in the systematic order. Beyond 25-mm
fibre length reinforcement, the friction angle remains
the same at 58. It is generally agreed that reinforcement
does not have a significant influence on the improvement
of angle of shearing resistance. The increase in the
cohesion of soil–fibre matrix may due to the increase
in the confining pressure due to the development of
 J. Prabakar, R.S. Sridhar / Construction and Building Materials 16 (2002) 123–131 127

Fig. 3. The relationship between the fibre length and the OMC.

tension in the fibre and the moisture in the fibre helps
to form absorbed water layer to the clay particles, which
enables the reinforced soil to act as single coherent
matrix of soil fibre mass.
The variation of cohesion with percentage of fibre
content is linear. Though the cohesion value is increased
with increase in fibre content, the amount of increase is
quite less for the same percentage of fibre content of
different lengths. The variation of friction angle with
fibre content shows a non-linear variation. In general,
the angle of internal friction increased with increase in
fibre content up to 0.75% fibre content and then reduced.
The maximum value of f obtained is 108 and smallest
value being 58. The variation of cohesion with percent-
age of fibre and length of fibre are presented in Figs. 5
and 6.
The stress–strain relationship of unreinforced soil and
soil reinforced with sisal fibre are drawn. Patterns of
stress–strain curves for all reinforced samples indicates
improvement in the deviator stress while fibre is includ-
ed in different proportion in different lengths. Deviator
stress of fibre included soil also increased with increase
in confining pressure (s3). Failure deviator stresses of
unreinforced soil are 68.37, 97.93 and 117.02 kNym2
corresponding to the confining pressures of 69, 138 and
207 kNym2, respectively. The maximum failure stresses
are recorded for soil reinforced with 0.75% of 20-mm
fibre as 222.21, 220.89 and 261.65 kNym2 correspond-

Fig. 4. Effect of fibre content on OMC.

128 J. Prabakar, R.S. Sridhar / Construction and Building Materials 16 (2002) 123–131

Table 3 ing to the confining pressures of 69, 138 and 207 kNy
Shear parameters of the reinforced soil m2, respectively. Except for soil reinforced with 25-mm
SI. Fibre Fibre Cohesion Angle of length fibres, the failure stress keeps on improving, but
no. length content (kPa) internal for 25-mm fibre included soil the failure stress reduced
(mm) (%) friction even less than that of unreinforced soil. The variation
(degrees) of f with fibre content and length of fibre is presented
1. 0 0 18 9 in Figs. 7 and 8.
2. 10 0.25 36 7 To express the results in terms of a dimensionless
3. 10 0.50 56 6 quantity, a parameter ‘strength ratio (R f )’, which is
4. 10 0.75 62 9
5. 10 1.00 28 7 defined as the ratio of the shear strength of reinforced
6. 15 0.25 38 6.5 soil to the shear strength of unreinforced soil has been
7. 15 0.50 58 6 selected, i.e. mathematically.
8. 15 0.75 62 8.5
9. 15 1.00 38 6 RfsŽs1ys3.r Reinforced soilyŽs1
10. 20 0.25 40 7
11. 20 0.50 54 8
ys3.r Unreinforced soil
12. 20 0.75 66 10
13. 20 1.00 40 7
The values of failure stress observed at 10% strain
14. 25 0.25 39 5.5 level and strength ratio of soil are presented in the Table
15. 25 0.50 60 5 4. The failure strain adopted in this test for the calcu-
16. 25 0.75 64 5 lation of peak deviator stress was 10% though the
17. 25 1.00 35 5 literature recommend 20% is practically not advisable
for soils under application of loads and therefore decided

Fig. 5. Variation of cohesion with length of fibre.

Fig. 6. Variation of cohesion with fibre content.

 J. Prabakar, R.S. Sridhar / Construction and Building Materials 16 (2002) 123–131 129

Fig. 7. Variation of p with length of fibre.

to restrict the failure strain at 10% level. The strength
ratio decreases with increases in confining pressure.
3.5. Effect of fibre length on deviator stress
Effect of length has significant influence on the shear
strength of samples. For a specific percentage of fibre
content and confining pressure, introduction of sisal
fibre improves the deviator stress. This improvement
keeps on increasing with increase in fibre length up to
20 mm. Beyond 20 mm, a further increase in fibre
length caused a reduction in the deviator stress.
Increased length of fibre reduces the soil–fibre inter-
locking, which may be the reason for the reduction in
deviator stress when the fibre length is increased after
20 mm. Inclusion of 20-mm fibre at 0.75%, recorded
the maximum deviator stress as 261.65 kPa when the
confining pressure is 2.7 kPa and maximum strength
ration as 3.250, when the confining pressure is 69 kPa.
3.6. Effect of fibre content on deviator stress
Percentage of fibre content included in to the soil as
reinforcements plays a significant role on the improve-
ment in the deviator stress of fibre reinforced soil. For
a specific length of fibre and confining pressure (s1),
deviator stress increased with increase in fibre content.
This is continues up to 0.75% fibre content beyond
which the deviator stress decreases. For all lengths of
fibre, the peak strength ration occurs at 0.75% fibre
inclusion. The maximum strength ratio is obtained as
3.250, while the soil was reinforced with 0.75% of 20-
mm fibre. This shows an increase of 325% in strength
ratio over unreinforced soil. At 1% fibre inclusion of
25-mm fibre in the confining pressures 138 and 207
kPa, the shear strength is less than that of unreinforced
soil. Increase in fibre content beyond 0.75%, reduces
the soil particles and therefore resulted in less mobilis-
ation of cohesion. This may be the reason for the
reduction of deviator stress after 0.75% fibre content.
4. Conclusions
Based on the experiments conducted to study the
influence of sisal fibre inclusion on the strength behav-
iour of soil under various tests conditions, the following

Fig. 8. Variation of p with length of fibre.

130 J. Prabakar, R.S. Sridhar / Construction and Building Materials 16 (2002) 123–131

Table 4
Failure deviator stress and strength ratio of reinforced soil

SI. Fibre Fibre Failure stress (kPa) Strength ratio

no. length content
(mm) (%)

1. 0 0 68.37 97.93 117.02 1.000 1.000 1.000

2. 10 0.25 103.99 122.12 142.30 1.521 1.247 1.216
3. 10 0.50 134.48 144.25 164.06 1.967 1.473 1.402
4. 10 0.75 166.41 195.08 221.87 2.434 1.992 1.896
5. 10 1.00 81.52 90.72 107.82 1.192 0.926 0.921
6. 15 0.25 106.79 133.57 146.33 1.562 1.364 1.250
7. 15 0.50 141.59 146.21 164.65 2.071 1.493 1.407
8. 15 0.75 182.55 200.56 224.91 2.670 2.048 1.922
9. 15 1.00 90.45 113.21 123.75 1.323 1.156 1.058
10. 20 0.25 114.39 118.35 151.20 1.673 1.209 1.292
11. 20 0.50 142.00 174.87 155.15 2.076 1.786 1.326
12. 20 0.75 222.21 220.89 261.65 3.250 2.256 2.236
13. 20 1.00 99.93 144.63 135.43 1.462 1.477 1.157
14. 25 0.25 97.50 110.47 124.28 1.426 1.128 1.062
15. 25 0.50 137.42 142.39 150.49 2.010 1.454 1.286
16. 25 0.75 150.88 157.86 165.27 2.207 1.612 1.412
17. 25 1.00 77.71 90.80 95.48 1.137 0.927 0.816
s3 69 138 207 69 138 207
(kPa)

conclusions are made. When the soil is reinforced with
the sisal fibre, it reduces the dry density of the soil due
to a low specific gravity and unit weight of sisal fibre.
The maximum dry density of reinforced soil ranges from
1.775 to 1.698 gycm3. The increase in the fibre length
and fibre content also reduces the dry density of the
soil. The variation is linear for both cases. Initial
introduction of fibre in to the soil causes an increase in
OMC, and a further increase in both length and fibre
content reduce OMC. The OMC range of reinforced soil
is between 19.2 and 16.0%.
The shear stress of fibre reinforced soil is improved
due to the addition of the sisal fibre. The shear stress is
increased non-linearly with increase in length of fibre
up to 20 mm and beyond, where an increase in length
reduces the shear stress. The increase in the length of
fibre fails to interlock the soil particles and therefore,
soil–fibre particles do not act as a single coherent
matrix. The shear stress of reinforced soil is also
increased with increase in confining pressure (s3). The
percentage of fibre content also influences the shear
strength as the shear stress improves non-linearly with
increase in fibre content. But beyond 0.75% fibre con-
tent, the shear stress reduces with increase in fibre
content. When the percentage of fibre content is
increased, the density of the soil fibre mass is reduced
and thus may be the reason for this reduction.
The value of cohesion is increased due to the inclusion
of sisal fibre. The maximum value of cohesion is
obtained as 66 kPa as against 18 kPa of unreinforced
soil. Up to 20-mm length, the increase in the length of
fibre increases the value of cohesion and this variation
is linear. There is no specific trend in the variation of
friction angle with length of fibre. Up to 0.75% fibre
content, the cohesion is said to be improved linearly
with increase in the fibre content. But for the same fibre
content of different length of fibre, the amount of
increase of cohesion is quite less.
The non-linear variation of f with percentage of fibre
content leads to a conclusion that the behaviour of the
fibre included soil may be non-linear in high stress
regions.
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