UseofGeotextilesinRoadsOverWeak LNCE Springer V137
UseofGeotextilesinRoadsOverWeak LNCE Springer V137
UseofGeotextilesinRoadsOverWeak LNCE Springer V137
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1 Introduction
A. Ansari (B)
Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, New Delhi 110016, India
e-mail: [email protected]
P. B. Daigavane
Department of Civil Engineering, Government College of Engineering Nagpur, Nagpur 441108,
India
S. Pathan · N. Shaikh · F. Shaikh
Department of Civil Engineering, Government College of Engineering and Research, Awasari,
Pune 412405, India
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 365
S. Patel et al. (eds.), Proceedings of the Indian Geotechnical Conference 2019,
Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering 137,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-6466-0_34
366 A. Ansari et al.
make a highway professional’s job more challenging in delivering a safe and cost-
effective road network to its users. One of the major problems faced by the engineers
in highway construction in plains and coastal areas of India is the presence of soft
soil at ground level. This strata being of considerable depth cannot be removed by
excavation. Thus leaving no choice but to build roads over them. This condition may
be further worsened if supplemented with poor drainage or a lack of it.
Majority of the investigations on failure of such roads built on soft soil attribute
it to the presence of fine-grained soil which gets intermixed with the aggregate base
materials destroying the structural strength of the aggregate by interfering with stone
to stone contact. It is also mentioned here that unsatisfactory performance of poor
subgrade is again associated with lateral displacement of the subgrade and the base
materials under load. The conventional remedy to overcome this phenomenon is
the provision of a blanket course of alternatively usage of stabilized local soils as
a sub-base layer. Though this may to some extent aid in resolving the problem, the
remedial measures may prove to be time-consuming and quite expensive and in many
cases many compromise in terms of cost–benefit ratio or quality which could further
aggravate the problem.
The lacuna identified with the traditional approach commands the problem to be
tackled at its rudimentary level by rectification of the basic weakness of the formation
subgrade and to settle for a strategic solution. It is in this context that jute fabric when
applied at the interface of the subgrade is found to resolve the issue by improving
the quality of weak soil subgrade. However, this concept of incorporating an extra
indigenous element at the subgrade level is by means a modern idea.
2 Literature Review
2.1 General
Bacteria and fungi are the two main groups of microorganisms responsible for the
microbial decomposition of natural textile materials [1]. The probability of bacterial
damage is greater when jute comes in to contact with soil and soil bacterial. It is
reported that the minimum moisture requirements for the growth of bacteria and
fungi on jute are 20% and 17%, respectively. Jute attains these moisture contents
when exposed to atmospheres of 90 and 80% relative humidity, respectively, for
aerobic soil bacterial growth a temperature of 37 °C is ideal whereas for growth it is
30 °C. Jute materials when exposed to sunlight and rain will become more susceptible
to fungal attack [2, 3].
A change in initial pH value of the medium from acidic to alkaline and vice versa
when jute specimens were embedded in mediums and kept in an incubator [4]. It was
stated that this occurred due to the action of fungi only. Very limited studies were
conducted on soil burial test using jute [5, 6]. The degradation studies reported above
an overall view of the complex factors governing the same. However, they cannot
Use of Geotextiles in Roads Over Weak Subgrades 367
Fluid Transmission. Geotextile can provide fluid transmission. In the fluid transmis-
sion geotextile collects a liquid or a gas and conveys it within its own plane toward
an outlet.
Filtration. Geotextile acts as filter. In this it allows the liquid to pass through it
normal to its own plane. It prevents most of the soil particles to pass through it.
Therefore it allows only water to pass not the soil particles.
Separation. When a geotextile is placed in between fine particles and coarse particles
it acts as separator. Here the geotextile avoids mixing of fine particles and coarse
material like gravel and stones under the repeated action of loads.
Protection. Geotextile protects a material when it distributes the stresses and strains
transmitted to the material. Under this two cases are considered, both surface
protection and interface protection.
Tension Membrane. When the geotextile is placed between two materials having
different pressures, geotextile performs a function of tension membrane. It tries to
balance the pressure difference between the two materials and strengthening the struc-
ture. Also the geotextile acts as a tensile member when it provides tensile modules
and strength to a soil. This increase in strength is due to the friction, cohesion or
interlocking between geotextile and soil.
Drainage. As the geotextile is a permeable material it plays an important role in
drainage for most of the civil engineering structures like dams, road pavements,
embankments, etc., in which drainage of the water is most important. For these
structures different underdrain systems should be constructed. Due to use of geotex-
tiles in these structures for drainage, efficiency of under drainage system is increased
construction has become easy.
368 A. Ansari et al.
This part of the paper discusses the use of geotextiles for asphalt concrete (AC)
overlays on roads and airfields and the separation and reinforcement of materials in
new construction. The functions performed by the geotextile and the design consid-
erations are different for these two applications. In an AC pavement system, the
geotextile provides a stress-relieving interlayer between the existing pavement and
the overlay that reduces and retards reflective cracks under certain conditions and
acts as a moisture barrier to prevent surface water from entering the pavement struc-
ture. When a geotextile is used as a separator, it is placed between the soft subgrade
and the granular material. It acts as a filter to allow water but not fine material to
pass through it, preventing any mixing of the soft soil and granular material under
the action of the construction equipment or subsequent traffic (Fig. 1).
Geotextiles have been successful in reducing and retarding reflective cracking in mild
and dry climates when temperature and moisture changes are less likely to contribute
to movement of the underlying pavement; whereas, geotextiles in cold climates have
not been as successful. Even when the climate and thickness requirements are met,
there has been no consistent increase in the time it takes for reflective cracking to
develop in the overlay indicating that other factors are influencing the performance.
Soft subgrade materials may mix with the granular base or sub-base material as a
result of loads applied to the base course during construction and/or loads applied to
the pavement surface that force the granular material downward into the soft subgrade
or as a result of water moving upward into the granular material and carrying the
subgrade material with it. Also, the subgrade can be stabilized with lime or cement
or the thickness of granular material can be increased to reduce the stress on the
subgrade. Geotextiles have been used in construction of gravel roads and airfields
over soft soils to solve these problems and either increase the life of the pavement
or reduce the initial cost.
4 Experimental Programme
4.1 General
d. Clay mixed with manure in equal proportion (1:1) at a water content of 50%
(Admixture K 1 )
e. Sand mixed with clay and manure in equal proportion (1:1:1) at a water content
of 30% (Admixture YK 1 )
f. Garden soil having an organic content of 8% at a water content of 30% (Admixture
G)
g. Burial soil having an organic content of 3% at a water content of 6% (Admixture
B).
Narrow strip tensile strength tests were conducted at regular intervals on speci-
mens of 50 mm × 75 mm length obtained from the degraded specimens. The dura-
bility studies were continued till percent reduction in strength of jute fabric took
place in all the admixtures (Table 1).
We did the formulation of commonly used admixtures using clay, sand, manure,
garden soil and burial [9]. The reduction in strength at the end of 24 days for jute
Type a under different conditions is presented in Table 2.
For admixture Y 1 , Type A lost its complete strength within 35 days and Type B
within 24 days whereas it was 147 days and 90 days, respectively, in Admixture K.
Use of Geotextiles in Roads Over Weak Subgrades 371
Table 2 Summary of percentage reduction in strength of jute fabric (type A), kept in different
environments at the end of 24 days (Initial strength = 25.66 KN/m)
Admixture Combination of Organic Initial moisture Final strength % reduction in
materials content (%) content (%) (kN/m) strength
K Clay 0 45 21.3 17
Y Sand 0 12 16.94 34
G Garden soil 8 30 12.83 50
B Burial 3 6 11.55 55
YK 1 Sand + Clay + 12 30 3.34 87
Manure (1:1:1)
K1 Clay + Manure 22 50 1.28 95
(1:1)
Y1 Sand + Manure 22 20 0.51 98
(1:1)
In all other Admixtures, Type A variety took longer for complete strength loss which
could be to its high areal density.
From the burial test, it was observed that Type A variety lost its complete strength
within 70 days. Whereas it was 49 days for Type B. By this time the fabric could
not even withstand the handling. However, the fabric was found to be in an impaired
372 A. Ansari et al.
condition in the test pit but with no strength for nearly 10 and 8 months, respec-
tively, before it completely coalesced with the soil. From the accelerated up-gradation
studies conducted, it was found that jute losses its complete strength within 3.5 and
5 months in sand and clay, respectively. Even though the fabrics lost their strength
within a short span of time which depends on the type of soil moisture and organic
content of soil as well as the climatic conditions, it was found that jute fabric was in
an impaired condition for a further duration of time before it coalesced with the soil.
During this period, it can be presumed that fabric can perform the functions which
do not require strength.
5 Conclusion
Fine-grained saturated soils exist over wide areas in plains and coastal belts. Pressing
necessity of accommodating the escalating population confronted with the dearth of
unutilized land poses a bottleneck situation which demands construction activities
over these adverse areas. Geotextiles can play a significant role in such situations
which demand construction activities over these adverse areas. Jute geotextiles can
play a vital role in such situations and serve as an effective and economic tool in the
rehabilitation of the nation’s highway system. General apathy toward acceptance of
a new technique over existing norms should not be a factor against their utilization as
overall assessment evaluated on the basis of trend of serviceability with time reveal
their efficiency in mitigating such problems. Several case histories of its applications
show very encouraging results and advantageous natural properties of the fabric
indicate great scope for its application in difficult road construction situation.
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