Study of the effect of water dosage and compaction on the physico-mechanical characteristics of a mixture of earth (Avédji clay soil) and coconut fibers

Abstract

The objective of this study is to contribute to the popularization of knowledge on the earth construction sector by studying the influence of the variation in the quantity of water and the compaction energy on the physico-mechanical properties of a mixture of earth (Avédji clay soil) and coconut plant fibers. · To achieve this, we carried out : · characterization of clay soil and coconut fibers ; · a pre-formulation to achieve good workability and manageability of the soil-fiber mixture (this made it possible to adopt 80% clay soil and 20% coconut plant fibers) ; · the formulation and preparation of soil-fiber mixture samples with two compaction modes: vibration and staking and variations in the quantity of water from 16% to 20% in increments of 2% ; · determination of the mechanical properties of mixtures by compression and tensile tests by bending in the hardened state. The results obtained show that for a water variation of 16% and 20%, the staked specimens give higher compressive strengths than the vibrated specimens; while at 18% the resistances are approximately the same. In traction, the resistance varies in the same direction as the water variation and the addition of fibers makes it possible to improve this tensile resistance by bending. Furthermore, the best mechanical strengths are obtained in traction, which is about 1.00 MPa, and in compression, which is about 1.544 MPa for a water variation of 20% and for compaction energy by staking precisely at compression.