Title: Strength and microstructural characteristics evaluation of a fibre reinforced fine grained soil using Taguchi technique

Authors: Amit Kumar; D.K. Soni

Addresses: Department of Civil Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Kurukshetra-136119, India ' Department of Civil Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Kurukshetra-136119, India

Abstract: The viability of Taguchi technique to optimise the unconfined compressive strength of polypropylene fibre (PPF) reinforced cohesive soil has been investigated in this paper. Dominating factors for UCS optimisation have also been reported. Eggshell powder and sodium chloride were used to treat the soil and 7, 14 and 21 days cured specimens were tested. The samples were prepared by design of experiments produced by Taguchi technique those arranged in orthogonal arrays. Experimental results were analysed by performing analysis of variance. Finally, optimised conditions were experimentally verified. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS) results were also studied to explore the microstructural changes and elemental analysis of subjected soil. Overall the study focuses on the potential of the additives to strengthen the weak soil and Taguchi technique for engineering problems. Results obtained from this study might be used for pavement design and ground improvement during foundation works.

Keywords: UCS; unconfined compressive strength; microstructural analysis; Taguchi; optimisation; eggshell powder; sodium chloride; polypropylene; fibre; cementitious compounds.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMMP.2019.102225

International Journal of Microstructure and Materials Properties, 2019 Vol.14 No.5, pp.478 - 494

Received: 05 Mar 2019
Accepted: 09 May 2019
Published online: 11 Sep 2019 *

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