Strength and compressibility characteristics of soil stabilized with plastic bag strips

Abstract This study investigates the potential application of utilizing plastic bag strips (PBS) in improving the strength and compressibility behavior of soils. A series of unconfined compressive strength (UCS) and consolidation tests were carried out for different proportions of plastic bag strip reinforced soil. The effect of the thickness (t) and aspect ratio (AR) on the UCS and compressibility characteristics of PBS reinforced soil was investigated. The thicknesses of PBS used were 15 µm, 30 µm and 45 µm which were added in varying concentrations (0.1%-0.7%) at different aspect ratios 1, 2 and 2.5. The laboratory results clearly show that PBS have a significant influence on the UCS and compressibility behavior of soil. In addition, the peak value of UCS (qu) increases with the thickness and AR of PBS. A significant improvement in qu has been found for 0.5% addition of PBS. Moreover, the swelling behavior of soil has significantly reduced with the addition of PBS.