Load carrying capacity of circular footing on black cotton soil reinforced with fibre mixed soil-cement column

Abstract

The load carrying capacity (Qa) of black cotton (BC) soil reinforced with single ordinary soil-cement column (OSC) or fibre mixed soil-cement column (FSC) is presented in this paper. Different quantities of cement or polypropylene fibres with cement (i.e., in case of FSC) were taken to construct OSC and FSC. The test on composite soil bed was conducted after the curing period of 28 days. The test results show that the Qa of the composite soil bed reinforced with OSC containing 5% cement content (Cc) is 2.36 times the Qa of untreated soil. Similar is the observation for the FSC reinforced BC soil test beds containing combination of Fc and Cc. The FSC reinforced soil bed improves Qa more significantly than that by the OSC. At 1% Fc and 5% Cc the Qa of the FSC reinforced BC soil is nearly the same to that of OSC reinforced soil with Cc of 15%. Thus, FSC reinforcement in BC soil provides an economical and environmentally viable solution for ground improvement than the conventional OSC.