Investigation of the effect of glass fiber additives on the geotechnical properties of clay soils

With the increasing population in the world, the need for new settlements is constantly increasing. This situation has made it inevitable to build buildings on soils with low bearing capacity and high settlement potential, which are referred to as problematic soils. Various soil improvement methods are frequently applied in the literature to make such soils suitable. Especially in the last 20 years, the use of environmentally friendly materials in ground improvement has increased in geotechnical engineering, as in every field. Soil reinforcement with glass fiber is a simple, efficient and low-cost technique to improve the mechanical properties of clay soils. In this thesis, glass fiber, an environmentally friendly material, was used. Within the scope of this thesis, an experimental program was followed to investigate the effect of geotechnical properties of soils by mixing three different pure clays with glass fiber. The main purpose of this experimental study is to investigate the effects of glass fiber (GF) on increasing the strength/deformation properties of clays. For this purpose, standard compaction and Casagrande tests were carried out. In each experiment, three types of clay (Bentonite, Kaolin and Sepiolite) were used separately. A composite floor was prepared in which glass fiber had different amounts (i.e., 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5%) and different lengths (powder, 6 and 12 mm). It is not a general rule that the increase in glass fiber ratio directly affects the increase in strength. The experiments have demonstrated that glass fiber is effective on the properties of clay soils. Additionally, it is believed that this composite could be beneficial in the construction of highway and railway infrastructure, coatings, small fillings/ditches, fillings around pipes, and slope protections.