Browsing by Author "Owusu‑Nimo, Frederick"

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    The efect of randomly distributed natural fbers on some geotechnical characteristics of a lateritic soil
    (SN Applied Sciences, 2021-05-17) Lawer, A. K.; Ampadu, Samuel Innocent Kofi; Owusu‑Nimo, Frederick
    Weak lateritic subgrades are more often than not encountered during road construction in Ghana. This makes it necessary to fnd economically efcient ways to improve the engineering properties of these marginal lateritic soils. The objective of this study is to investigate the efects of coconut fber (30 mm, 60 mm and 90 mm fber lengths) and palm fber on some geotechnical characteristics of a weak lateritic subgrade. The lateritic soil was collected from the KNUST campus and blended with various percentages of the fbers varying between 0.1 and 1.0% by weight of dry soil. The mixed materials were then subjected to various laboratory tests including compaction, unconfned compression test and 4-day-soaked California bearing ratio test. From the results, it was observed that increasing the fber content decreased the maximum dry density and increased the optimum moisture content. The inclusion of the fber increased the soaked CBR from 7 to a maximum of 18, 22, and 25 at 30 mm, 60 mm and 90 mm fber lengths, respectively. The unconfned compressive strength also increased from 140 to a maximum of 353 kPa, 398 kPa and 447 kPa, respectively, for 30 mm, 60 mm and 90 mm fber lengths. Similarly, palm fber inclusion recorded maximum soaked CBR value of 14% and UCS value of 352 kPa. These peak values were obtained at optimum fber contents of 0.2%.