Effect of Jute Fibres on Engineering characteristics of Black Cotton Soil

Light structures such as highways, railroads, runways, and other lifeline structures, constructed over black cotton soil may be severely damaged due to high swell-shrinkage behaviour of this soil owing to fluctuating water content. In India, black cotton soil cover as high as 20% of the total land area. Because it’s swell-shrinkage behaviour it is also called expansive soil. Expansive soil are considered to be unsafe with reference to safety of the structure in serviceability aspects, and needs to be tackled in a well engineered manner, if it should be used as a foundation soil. Several ground improvement and ground stabilisation techniques are in use to control the swelling potential of such soil. The use of Jute geotextile is a new and innovative solution, in which a geotextile material is used in expansive soil to stabilize it. The present study attempts to understand the effectiveness of Jute fibres in controlling swelling behaviour of black cotton soil measured in the laboratory with and without use of random reinforced jute fibres in the black cotton soil. The influence of one parameters of random reinforced jute fibres, via, its amount, on the measured reduction of swelling behaviour is systematically studied, under controlled conditions. The objective of this study is to propose an alternative method to control the swelling behaviour of the expansive soil. In the present study soil samples containing 0%, 1%, 2% to 5% of jute fibre were prepared and the shrinkage limit, optimum moisture content, maximum dry density, california bearing ratio and unconfined compressive strength were conducted as per relevant IS code of practise. The test results showed significance decrease in the expansive behaviour of the black cotton soil. The shrinkage limit increase from 8.66% to 14.68%.There is a remarkable increase in California bearing ratio and unconfined compressive strength test results. The C.B.R. value increased from 1.8% to 4.1% and unconfined compressive strength values increased from 1.09kg/cm^2 to 1.35kg/cm^2. If black cotton soil is blended with jute fibres from 0% to 5% by weight of black cotton soil.