Effect of waste cornsilk fiber reinforcement on mechanical properties of soft soils

Abstract The present study was carried out to understand the mechanical properties of soil reinforced with cornsilk fibers which are considered as a by-product of corn. This study considered the effect of the additive amount of fibers (0.5, 1, 1.5, and 2%) as well as the fiber lengths (10, 30, and 50 mm) on the mechanical properties of fiber reinforced soil by using compaction test, unconfined compression test, and splitting tension test. The results indicated that the addition of cornsilk fibers in soil improved mechanical properties including compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, ductility, toughness, and stiffness. Typically, the highest increase of maximum unconfined compressive strength was about 38% when using the fiber content of 1% and the fiber length of 10 or 30 mm. The most increase of failure splitting tensile strength was 210.5% with the fiber content of 2% and the fiber length of 50 mm. It can be concluded that cornsilk fibers showed good performance in soil stabilization, seemed to be a good fiber material to modify soil, and should be concerned in future.