Roles of curing conditions on properties of soil reinforced with palm fiber and lime

Abstract

Due to the environment-friendly properties of palm fiber, its use was attempted to improve the quality of soil together with lime. Unconfined compressive tests were carried out on soils mixed with palm fiber and lime under the three curing conditions of immersion in water, cyclic wetting-drying and air-curing for a series of contents of additives. The static stiffness of five types of samples (the number 1 type is the control sample) was also analyzed against curing conditions, curing time and sample type. Results from the tests show that the immersion in water condition is the best for the formation of unconfined compressive strength (UCS) and static stiffness, while the air-curing condition is the worst. The highest UCS can be acquired with 1% palm fiber and 20.7% lime, and the highest static stiffness was acquired with purely 20.7% lime content. The fastest increase rate is presented by the curing condition of immersion in water. The logarithmic function is more suitable for expressing the relationship between static stiffness and curing time. It is important for site engineers to understand the curing conditions and stabilizing mechanism of palm fiber and lime for the design and construction of civil engineering projects.