| Abstrakt: |
Recycling of waste materials has become a major concern for a sustainable life on our planet. So, researchers have been focusing on alternative recycling options in the recent decades. Sheep wool is a natural fiber which is wasted in large amounts every year especially in the middle east region. The primary objective of this study was to investigate the possible effects of adding recycled sheep wool to low and high plastic clays in terms of consistency limits, compaction, and strength properties, aiming to find a possible means of recycling these wasted natural fibers. For this purpose, sheep wool and fine-grained soil samples were collected from Iraq. Then, sheep wool/clay mixtures were prepared by adding 0.5%, 1%, 2%, 4%, 6%, 8%, and 10% sheep wool to clay by dry weight of clay. Proctor compaction, consistency limit, and unconfined compression tests were performed on these samples. The consistency limits were noticeably increased with increasing sheep wool content without a significant change in plasticity indices of the samples. The maximum dry density was observed to decrease gradually while the optimum moisture content was increasing with increasing sheep wool content, as expected for both types of soils. The unconfined compressive strength of the tested samples was observed to increase up to an optimum level of fiber content for both types of soils and decreased with further fiber addition. The optimum fiber contents were found to be 0.5% and 1% for low and high plastic clays respectively with a more noticeable effect for the latter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
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