Mechanical Behavior of Curaua Treated Fiber-Reinforced Sand

The inclusion of artificial fibers in the soil has been studied by many researchers during the last years and has shown efficient by improving the mechanical properties of the soil. This kind of association results in an interesting composite material for geotechnical engineering applications. In this context, the aim of this research is to analyze the behavior of a granular soil reinforced with random inclusion of short and curaua fibers superficially treated with recycled EPS (expanded polystyrene). The non-reinforced and reinforced soil samples were subjected to triaxial tests. Through the obtained results, it was observed that the addition of randomly distributed natural treated fibers presented significant improvements on the mechanical properties of this soil. The polymer used was shown quite applicable to the proposed analysis, promoting the decrease of the water absorption of the vegetal fibers.