Experimental Insights Into The Application Of Discarded Shrimp Mesh To Vitalize Swell And Shrink Characteristics Of Expansive Soils

Abstract

The capacity of expansive soils to expand and contract is widely recognized, and as a result, these volumetric changes seriously damage civil infrastructures. Due to subgrades composed of expansive soils, similar pavement serviceability problems arise in various parts of Pakistan as well as throughout the world. The utilization of used fishing nets to improve the engineering qualities of a neighboring expansive soil is described in this study. This study looked at the moisture-density (OMC and MDD) connection, (UCS), and (CBR) of the soil treated with 0%, 0.4%, and 0.8% WFN. According to the test results, the soil sample's MDD decreased by 8.5%. The average density of the reinforced soil sample may have increased the percentage of WFN in the soil sample, which could explain the decrease in MDD. Denser soil particles (Gs = 2.69) are replaced with WFN with low specific gravity in a unit volume, lowering the soil sample's total unit weight. The OMC of the soil sample with the reinforced soil sample was found to be significantly higher, indicating a significant rise in OMC. This might be due to the expanding nature of the soil, which observed more water, or the nature of WFN, which was unable to observe water into it. UCS has shown a notable improvement. Without WFN reinforcement, the soil's unconfined compressive strength is determined to be 76.2 kPa. When 0.4% WFN was added to soil samples, the unconfined strength of the soil increased to 85.3 kPa, indicating a 10.6% increase, and when 0.8% WFN was added, the unconfined compressive strength of the soil increased to 102.1 kPa, indicating a 30% increase. When 0.4% WFN is added to the soil, the CBR value increases by 8%, and when 0.8% WFN is added, the CBR value increases by 16%, which is twice as much as 0.4% reinforced soil against a penetration of 0.1 inch. This results in a higher-quality subgrade for pavement building on such soils. The experimental calculations show that WFN has great potential as an inexpensive, long-term stabilizing component for often inflated soils.