Strength Characteristics of Stabilized Soils Containing Bamboo Fiber Extracted by Steam Explosion

抄録

Construction work and materials depend mostly on earth resources. A sustainable recycling-oriented society becomes possible only when technologies for recycling as well as for energy conservation in construction are disseminated and when untapped natural resources are effectively utilized. In this paper, applicability of natural fibers for the soil stabilization technique was examined. Especially, this paper focuses on bamboo fiber extracted by steam explosion, which technique is capable to produce thin and flexible fibers from raw bamboo. In order to understanding the mechanical properties of soil mixed with bamboo fiber produced by steam explosion, unconfined compression tests were conducted. As a result of unconfined compression tests, following findings are obtained. (1) The addition of bamboo fiber to cohesive soil helps to increase the unconfined compression strength of the soil. Moreover, the addition of bamboo fiber to soil helps to increase the toughness of the soil. (2) An increase in the mix ratio of bamboo fiber results in a change in the failure mode of test specimens. In addition, at a mix ratio by weight of 0.4% or higher, specimens did not occur shear failure, but instead broke such as to become barrel-shaped. (3) The deformation coefficient of the soil mixed with bamboo fiber is similar to the deformation coefficient of cohesive soil containing no bamboo fiber. The addition of bamboo fiber does not affect deformation properties.