ABSTRACT
In this era of rapid industrialization and urbanization, road networks play a pivotal role in the movement of goods from one point to another. Hence, good roads are necessary for any type of infrastructure development and also for the development of a nation as a whole. It is often seen that, in the developing countries, the structural and functional performance of a pavement deteriorates significantly even before the designed service life of the pavement is reached. The most common cause for such pavement deterioration is the failure of the subgrade. Hence, a sound understanding of the properties of soil subgrade are essential for designing a pavement. Sometimes roads need to be built in regions where the subgrade soil strength is low. The properties of this soil can be improved by the inclusion of reinforcements in the subgrade soil. Different investigators have studied the effects of reinforcement on the physical properties of soil.
In this paper, the effect of the inclusion of jute fibers as reinforcement on the various properties, i.e. Optimum Moisture Content (OMC), Maximum Dry Density (MDD), and California Bearing Ratio (CBR) Values, are studied. The study also includes the effects of percentage reinforcement on these properties. The effects of reinforcement have been observed by designing a pavement subgrade for a known condition. The outcome of the design shows that the inclusion of reinforcements decreases the thickness of the subgrade layer.
