Volume 10, Issue 11, November 2021

Impact Factor: 7.569

International Journal of Innovative Research in Science, Engineering and Technology (IJIRSET)

| e-ISSN: 2319-8753, p-ISSN: 2347-6710| www.ijirset.com | Impact Factor: 7.569|

| Volume 10, Issue 11, November 2021 ||

| DOI:10.15680/IJIRSET.2021.1011098|

Soil Reinforcement Using Pine Needles –

Review
Zahoor Ahmad Qureshi1, Junaid Jeelani2, Sakeena Qureshi3, Rukhsana Qureshi4
B.E Student, Department of Civil Engineering, SSM College of Engineering, Kashmir, India1,2,3,4

ABSTRACT: A great interest in the research of naturally available materials had been evoked due to the lack of
resources that are environment friendly. Randomly distributed fibre reinforced soils have recently been a source of
attraction for Engineers. The present work emphasizes on soil stabilization using pine needles. The pine needles are
available as scrap material in abundance and therefore can be used for soil stabilization purpose taking into account
both cost as well as easy availability of material. This paper is the partial part of the ongoing research work.

KEYWORDS: Soil Reinforcement; Cohesion; OMC; MDD; CBR; Fibre Reinforced; Soil Stabilization; Aspect Ratio.

I. INTRODUCTION

Disintegration of physical and chemical agents leads to the formation of soil. It is formed when rocks, minerals like
granite marble sandstone, organic matter both animated and in animated, water and air combine with each other. Soil is
by and large falsified due to weathering action of wind, rain, snow, sun which lead to the disintegration of rocks.
Humus also leads to the soil formation on combining with rock. Reactions mixed up in chemical process are corrosion,
hydration, carbonation and oozing by natural acids and water. Nature of soil can be identified by combination of humus
and the size of the grains of rock. The grains may be very small and even, clay is the best example or they may be
larger, like grains of sand or may be gravel. Soil is considered to be the important part of environment because it is the
place where plants and animals survive and grow. Beside this maximum of rainwater also makes its passage through
soil and hence purity of water is maintained by soil. As far as civil engineering is concerned soil is the earliest and used
building material. It is also the material which has been used at great numbers. Soil has been classified on numerous
bases. The main being residual soil, transported soil, organic soils and volcanic soils. However type of soil can also
vary with climate. Mainly for engineering structures residual soil is used further classified as black cotton soil and
literate soil. Clayey soils have been selected for the study. In India they are mostly used for the growth of cottons and
are found in northern India brownish in color. These soils are expensive. They shrink quickly under the action of
applied loads. Optimum moisture content of these soils is very high. These soils are vastly perceptive to dampness
alterations, when pressure is applied on sub grade objects. Sub grade and its objectionable distinctiveness needed to be

IJIRSET © 2021 | An ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal | 14292

International Journal of Innovative Research in Science, Engineering and Technology (IJIRSET)

| e-ISSN: 2319-8753, p-ISSN: 2347-6710| www.ijirset.com | Impact Factor: 7.569|

| Volume 10, Issue 11, November 2021 ||

| DOI:10.15680/IJIRSET.2021.1011098|

tailored by use of an appropriate stabilization method. Different methods have been used for improving the stability of
soil and its engineering properties. Main aim of stabilization is to increase the stability and strength of soil and then use
it for construction of roads and highway pavements in an economical and effective manner. Soil Stabilization is done
physically, mechanically or chemically. In Physical stabilization, soil is stabilized electrically, thermally and by action
of freeze and thaw vibrating the soil mass. The particular method chosen for a given soil depends upon its formation
and types.
Soil reinforcement is defined as a technique to improve the engineering characteristics of soil. It is same as reinforcing
concrete, to improve its properties. The strength and stability of all soils improve on compaction. For certain purposes,
the strength gained, even after compaction, may not be adequate. Thus in such situations idea is to stabilize soil by
reinforcing it using either geosynthetics, natural fibres, manmade fibres, mineral fibres etc. The idea of reinforced soil
is quiet ancient and old. It all began like a game, when HENRI VIDAL, a highway engineer and architect, was trying to
build a sandcastle on the beach. But the sand kept on falling off. Then he made use of pine needles to stabilize the
castle. This is how the general principal of reinforced earth came about. Consequently, randomly distributed fiber
reinforced soils have recently attracted increasing attention in geotechnical engineering for the second time.
Jammu and Kashmir State is gifted by nature with dense forests, which constitutes 19.95 % of geographical area of the
State. Among these forests, a large area of Himalayan region is under dense Pine forest. The Pinus family trees like
Chir (Pinus Roxburghii), Kail (Pinus Walichina) and Deodar (Cedrus deodara) are having needle like leaves in cluster
form. When these needles become mature and brown in colour, these shed-down in huge quantity on to the ground
surface. These pine needles form a carpet and cover entire pine forests, which are prone to fire hazards and also cause
severe environmental instability in the forest area.
On the other hand, due to rapid urbanization, there is scarcity of stable ground for construction of various
infrastructures. Therefore, utmost efforts are put in-place to use marginal soils after appropriate soil improvement.
Among various ground improvement techniques, soil reinforcement technique has been successfully implemented for
soil improvement.
Over the last decade, the use of randomly distributed synthetic fibre has recorded a tremendous increase. However,
more emphasis is to be laid on use of natural fibres. Use of natural fibre in civil engineering for improving soil
properties is beneficial because they are cheap, locally available, and eco-friendly material. The natural fibre
reinforcement causes significant improvement in tensile strength, shear strength, and other engineering properties of the
soil. Among various natural fibres, pine needles are one of such natural fibres, being used as reinforcing material in soil
stabilization. Fibres especially those obtained from renewable resources such as natural fibre have attracted an
increasing attention during the last decade due to environmental concerns. These natural fibres are considered as the
most suitable alternative to synthetic fibre for use in various fields.
A variety of other natural fibre materials such as sisal, bamboo, palm leaf ,coconut coir,coconut leaf, cotton and etc.
have been experimented as a soil reinforced material so as to improve the strength of soil. Pine fibre is a similar type of
natural fibre available in large amount from pine forests, which is in almost every corner of world. The length of fibres
play a significant contribution in the strength enhancement of soil .However studies relating to using of pine needle as
soil reinforcement have not been reported so far. The attempt to use this biological waste as reinforcement in soil.
The soil reinforced with pine needles as natural fibre have increased CBR value. This increased CBR value will reduce
the thickness of pavement sub grade in rural roads. Thus, using pine needles as soil reinforcing medium has two-fold
advantage, firstly, to stabilize marginal soils for construction purpose and secondly to use this unwanted natural waste
material to avoid tremendous fire hazards, environmental instability and its bulk utilization at economical cost for
sustainable development.

Pine Needles

IJIRSET © 2021 | An ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal | 14293

International Journal of Innovative Research in Science, Engineering and Technology (IJIRSET)

| e-ISSN: 2319-8753, p-ISSN: 2347-6710| www.ijirset.com | Impact Factor: 7.569|

| Volume 10, Issue 11, November 2021 ||

| DOI:10.15680/IJIRSET.2021.1011098|

It is necessary to mention that natural fibers have been used for a long time in many developing countries in cement
composites and earth blocks because of their availability and low cost. At this point, some natural fibers and their
features in soil projects are briefly described:

a) Coconut (coir) fiber

The outer covering of fibrous material of a matured coconut,termed coconut husk, is the reject of coconut fruit. The
fibers are normally 50–350 mmlong and consist mainly of lignin, tannin, cellulose, pectin and other water soluble
substances 3.1.1. Coconut (coir) fiber The outer covering of fibrous material of a matured coconut, termed coconut
husk, is the reject of coconut fruit. The fibers are normally 50–350 mm long and consist mainly of lignin, tannin,
cellulose, pectin and other water soluble substances

b) Sisal
Sisal is a lingo-cellulosed fiber in which its traditional use is as a reinforcement for gypsum plaster sheets in building
industry with 60–70% of water absorption and diameter about 0.06– 0.4 mm. Sisal fibers are extracted from the leaves
of the plants, which vary in size, between 6–10 cm in width and 50–250 cm in length. In general, Brazil, Indonesia and
East African countries are the world’s main producers of sisal fibers.

c) Palm fibers
The palm fibers in date production have filament textures with special properties such as low costs, plenitude in the
region, durability, lightweight, tension capacity and relative strength against deterioration. Fibers extracted from
decomposed palm trees are found to be brittle, having low tensile strength and modulus of elasticity and very high
water absorption.

d) Jute
Jute is mainly environmental-friendly fiber that is used for producing porous textiles which are widely used for
filtration, drainage, and soil stabilization. For instance, GEOJUTE_ is the commercial name of a product woven from
jute fibers used for soil stabilization in pavement engineering.

e) Flax
Flax is probably the oldest textile fiber known to mankind. It has been used for the production of linen cloth since
ancient times. Flax is a slender, blue flowered plant grown for its fibers and seeds in many parts of the world. In an
effort, Segetin et al. improved the ductility of the soil–cement composite with the addition of flax fibers. An enamel
paint coating was applied to the fiber surface to increase its interfacial bond strength with the soil. Fiber length of 85
mm along with fiber content levels of 0.6% was recommended by the authors. Two types of natural fibers including
wheat straw, barley straw and wood shavings were used by Ashour et al. to make a novel plaster material composed of
cohesive soil and sand. They concluded while fibers have remarkable effect on the strength and ductility of plasters,
their effects on the elastic modulus of plasters are relatively small. Abtahi et al. showed that barley straw fibers are
most effective on the shear strength of the soil than Kenaf fibers. The optimized fiber content was 1%. Bamboo fiber is
a regenerated cellulose fiber. Bamboo fiber is a regenerated cellulose fiber.

II. APPLICATIONS

A comprehensive literature review shows that using natural and/or synthetic fibers in geotechnical engineering is
feasible in six fields including pavement layers (road construction), retaining walls, and railway embankments,
protection of slopes, earthquake and soil-foundation engineering. A brief discussion about some cases is presented in
the following.
• Pavement layers
In 1991, the US ARMY Corps of Engineers demonstrated the improved performance of untreated and chemically
stabilized soil layers by using GEOFIBERS_ soil reinforcement in pavement engineering. The 30 cm fiber-reinforced
silty sand section provided a 33% increase in the number of traffic passes versus the similar un-reinforced section.
Grogan and Johnson showed that the inclusion of Geofiber allowed up to 90% more traffic passes until failure in the
clay, 60% passes until failure in the modified sand, and some enhanced traffic performance was reported for the silty
sand. It is necessary to mention that PP Geofibers can be mixed with subgrade soils. Their inclusion raises the
maximum density about 5% and reduces the optimum moisture content of the compacted soil mixture about 5% as
well. Tingle et al. concluded from full-scale field tests that fiber-stabilized sands were a viable alternative to traditional
road construction materials for temporary or low-volume roads. They used a field mixing procedure more or less
similar to that of Santoni and Webster. There is an available report (2008) stating that aprons, taxiways, and a helipad

IJIRSET © 2021 | An ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal | 14294

International Journal of Innovative Research in Science, Engineering and Technology (IJIRSET)

| e-ISSN: 2319-8753, p-ISSN: 2347-6710| www.ijirset.com | Impact Factor: 7.569|

| Volume 10, Issue 11, November 2021 ||

| DOI:10.15680/IJIRSET.2021.1011098|

have been stabilized by using high-early strength Portland cement and PP fibers with screened native soil at the
Bradshaw Field Training Area in the Northern Territory, Australia. Finally, the most important findings of some
research works are that the use of synthetic and/or natural fibers in road construction can significantly increase
pavement resistance to rutting, as compared to the resistance of non-stabilized pavement over a weak subgrade.

• Retaining walls and railway embankments

Park and Tan showed that use of PP fibers of 60 mm reinforced silty-sand-soil-wall increases the stability of the wall
and decreases the earth pressures and displacements of the wall. They also reported that this effect is more significant
when short fiber soil is used in combination with geogrid.

• Protection of and foundation engineering slopes

Mainly, soils mixed with randomly distributed fibers can be used as patches in the localized repair of failed slopes as it
can accommodate the irregular shape of failed slopes. In the reinforcement of soil veneer such as landfill covers, fiber
reinforcement eliminates the need of anchorage that exists with planar reinforcement, as well reduces the erosion
gullies. The mixture of sand and fiber can be sprayed onto a problematic slope like shotcrete, creating a free-draining
gravity retention structure. For instance, a nominal rate of 20 m/s is recommended for glass fibers.

Another concept of using fibers in civil engineering is the construction of foundations in soils with poor bearing
capacities, where the costs of a deep foundation solution can be incompatible with the overall costs for low-budget
building projects. In these cases, alternatives for the improvement of local soil through the addition of cementitious
agents or through the inclusion of oriented or randomly distributed discrete elements such as fibers might be used.

III. EXECUTIVE PROBLEMS

The following executive problems are involved with using fibers in soil reinforcement:
• Lack of scientific standard
In spite of the quantity of research conducted into the resultant characteristics of using fiber and shavings for soil
improvement, there are still no scientific standard or techniques specialized for real field projects.
• Clumping and balling of fibers
Local aggregation (clumping) and folding of fibers (balling) are two problems concerned with fiber–soil composites. In
this way, fiber lengths beyond 2-in. (51 mm) were not found to significantly improve soil properties and proved more
difficult to work with in both laboratory and field experiments. As well, a successful tumble mixing technique has been
identified which is able to improve soil composite uniformity and the ease of manufacture.
• Adhesion of fiber and soil
Mainly, adhesion at the fiber–matrix interface has been found to be governed by the following three factors:
• The shear resistance of the soil due to the surface form and roughness of the fiber;
• The compressive friction forces on the surface of the fiber due to shrinkage of the soil; and the cohesive
properties of the soil.

Further, each of these three factors is affected by dimensional changes of the natural fiber which can occur due to
changes in moisture and temperature. Such changes in fiber dimension can occur during the curing stage of the soil–
fiber composite material and this then determines a possible mechanism resulting in a poor interfacial bond. During the
mixing and drying stages of production, the hydrophilic nature of the natural fibers can lead it to absorb water and
effectively push out on the soil matrix. Then near the end of the curing (drying) period, the fiber loses the water that has
absorbed, causing it to shrink back. Because the matrix is now set, a void is formed around the periphery of the fiber
and a weakened interfacial bond can result illustrates this mechanism. Therefore, in looking for an additive to improve
the bonding characteristics of fiber soil composites, it is required that the treatment reduces the transfer of water
between the matrix and the fiber. Possible additives identified from the literature include water resistant coatings such
as asphalt emulsion, rosin–alcohol mixture, paints, bituminous material, a water soluble acrylic, a polystyrene coating
and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS). Khazanchi et al. with their study of wall panels consisting of soil, 2.5%
cement and polystyrene coated wheat straw, reported fiber bond strength of 1.3 MPa. With the same material but using
bitumen and acrylic coatings, they also achieved bond strengths of 0.1–0.12 and 0.08–0.125 MPa, respectively. In this
study untreated fibers gave bond strengths in the range of0.07–0.08 MPa.

IJIRSET © 2021 | An ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal | 14295

International Journal of Innovative Research in Science, Engineering and Technology (IJIRSET)

| e-ISSN: 2319-8753, p-ISSN: 2347-6710| www.ijirset.com | Impact Factor: 7.569|

| Volume 10, Issue 11, November 2021 ||

| DOI:10.15680/IJIRSET.2021.1011098|

IV. OBJECTIVES

Use of natural fibre in civil engineering for improving soil properties is beneficial because they are cheap, locally
available, biodegradable and eco-friendly material. The natural fibre reinforcement causes significant improvement in
tensile strength, shear strength, and other engineering properties of the soil. Among various natural fibres, pine needles
are one of such natural fibres, being used as reinforcing material in soil stabilization. Fibres especially those obtained
from renewable resources such as natural fibre have attracted an increasing attention during the last decade due to
environmental concerns. These natural fibres are considered as the most suitable alternative to synthetic fibre for use in
various fields.

The project will study the effect of Pine needles stabilization on strength behavior of clayey soil. Pine needles collected
from locally available forest (Rajouri, J&K) chopped into 10 to 15mm length has been added randomly in clayey soil at
different percentages (i.e. 0.5%, 1% 1.5%) by dry weight of soil. Soil samples randomly mixed with Pine needles were
prepared at maximum dry density (MDD) and optimum moisture contents (OMC) and subjected to (California bearing
ratio) CBR tests, unconfined compression tests and compaction proctor tests.

V. CONCLUSION

On the basis of analysis and interpretation of results obtained from the previous experimental investigations carried out
in this work following conclusion are drawn.

1. It was found that that with addition of pine needles in the parent soil, the dry density decreases and OMC increases.
When pines were added dry density reduces, on increasing the percentage of pines from 0% to 1, 8 % dry density
decreases from 1.96 g/cc to 1.59 g/cc respectively. As far as OMC was concerned, it was increasing with
increasing in quantity of pines in soil that is from 13% to 17.56%. This increase in OMC and MDD was mainly
due to flocculation among clay particles and pine needles, thus as a result of rise in percentage of pines, size of
pore voids also increases, which result in better water holding capacity of soil mass and as a result the moisture
content increases.

2. To overcome the above mentioned difficulty calcium Chloride was added to soil in addition to Pine needles. It was
found that optimum percentage for soil remains stable in relevance to all its compaction properties like dry density,
Void ratio, OMC.

3. The optimum percentage of both pine and calcium chloride at which soil acquires best results was found to be
0.6% and 3% respectively.

4. Addition of pines to the clayey soil it was found that CBR value increases a little bit but not to a great extent.

5. The optimum percentage at which soil acquires maximum CBR was 1.2% by weight of soil after that CBR
decreases. So to increase CBR value Calcium Chloride was added and was noted that significant increase in CBR
value of Soil takes place,

REFERENCES

1. Maher M. H. and Gray D. H. (1990), “Static Response of Sands Reinforced with Randomly Distributed Fibers”, J.
Geotech. Engg. ASCE, 116(11), 1661- 1677.
2. Manoj Chandran, A.R. Sinha and R.B.S.Rawat (2011), “Replacing Controlled Burning Practice by Alternate
Methods of Reducing Fuel Load in the Himalayan Long Leaf Pine (PinusRoxburghiiSarg) Forests”, 5th
International Wildland Fire Conference, South Africa.
3. McGown A., Andrews K. Z. and Al-Hasani M. M. (1978), “Effect of Inclusion Properties on the Behaviour of
Sand”, Geotechnique, Vol 28(3), 327- 346.
4. Pandey P.K (1996), Litter Nutrient Dynamics in Mixed Old Grown PinusRoxburghii Sargent, Plantation of Doon
Valley, FRI, Dehradun.
5. Vasan R. M., Ranjan G. and Charan H. D. (1995), “Fiber Reinforced Soil: A New Method of Reinforced
SoilSubgrade”, Proc. National Seminar on Emerging Trends in Highway Engineering, Bangalore, 24.1-24.4

IJIRSET © 2021 | An ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal | 14296

International Journal of Innovative Research in Science, Engineering and Technology (IJIRSET)

| e-ISSN: 2319-8753, p-ISSN: 2347-6710| www.ijirset.com | Impact Factor: 7.569|

| Volume 10, Issue 11, November 2021 ||

| DOI:10.15680/IJIRSET.2021.1011098|

6. A simple review of soil reinforcement by using natural and synthetic fibers.Sayyed Mahdi Hejazi, Mohammad
Sheikh zadeh, Sayyed MahdiAbtahi, Ali Zadhoush.
7. http://saetaequina.com/files/1-s2_0-S0950061811006763-main.pdf

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