Use of Sawdust Fibers for Soil Reinforcement: A Review

A frequent problem in geotechnics is soils with inadequate physical–mechanical properties to withstand construction work, incurring cost overruns caused by their engineering improvement. The need to improve the engineering properties of soils is not recent. The most common current alternatives are binders such as cement and lime. The climate change observed in recent decades and the uncontrolled emission of greenhouse gases have motivated geotechnical and geoenvironmental researchers to seek mechanisms for soil reinforcement from a more sustainable and environmentally friendly approach by proposing the use of recycled and waste materials. An alternative is natural fibers, which can be obtained as waste from many agro-industrial processes, due to their high availability and low cost. Sawdust, as a by-product of wood processing, has a rough texture that can generate high friction between the fiber and the matrix of the soils, leading to a significant increase in its shearing strength and bearing capacity. This concept of improving the properties of soils using natural fibers distributed randomly is inspired by the natural phenomenon of grass and/or plants that, when growing on a slope, can effectively stabilize the said slope.