Effect of Bamboo Mat Reinforcements on Behaviour of Cohesionless Soil Using Triaxial Tests

Abstract Ground improvement has become a routine process due to the scarcity of suitable land for construction. The soil reinforcement technique is one of the versatile methods and soil reinforcement using geosynthetic materials has become more popular due to its simplicity. Due to rising costs and the concern over the environmental issues associated with it, the researchers search for natural products to utilize for soil reinforcement. In the present study, bamboo mats are used as reinforcement material in cohesionless soil. A series of triaxial tests were performed to assess the efficacy of bamboo mat as a reinforcement element in different configurations and the effect of configuration also reported here. In addition to that, the effect of confining pressure and the number of layers are also presented. A non-dimensional factor called Shear Strength Ratio measures the degree of improvement in peak deviator stress due to the inclusions. To quantify the degree of improvement, a factor called Shear Strength Ratio is used. The results show that bamboo mat inclusions are highly effective as soil reinforcement elements and inclusions considerably improve the shear strength parameters.