ABSTRACT
Soil acts as a foundation material for most structure that we see around us. The properties of soil plays an important role in transferring the load from the foundation to subsoil. The soil is a natural and complex material, therefore sometimes the properties of soil required to be modified using various techniques. One of such technique is, the use of natural fibers with soil. The advantages of using natural fibers like coir, jute, sisal, bamboo, hemp, bagasse, straw, banana etc., are freely available in nature, low cost, less in density and relatively high resistance to tension and bending. Due to these advantages, natural fiber material can be used as a reinforcement in soil which enhances the properties of soil. For this study the banana fibers were selected due to its ease availability in large quantity as waste product of banana cultivation in Gujarat. The aim of the present study is to determine the shear strength parameter of soil, with and without randomly mixed banana fiber. The banana fiber is mixed with soil having proportion of 0.5%, 1 % and 1.5% of dry weight of soil. The shear strength parameters, cohesion-c and angle of internal friction -φ values have been increased for soil with 0.5% banana fiber compared to unreinforced soil.
