Shear strength of a reinforced clayey soil with crushed polyethylene terephthalate

This article presents the use of plastic bottles of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) as a material for reinforcement in a clayey soil, the PET is used in the form of crushed particles to improve soil resistance. This article presents an experimental study to evaluate the mechanical behavior of pure soil and mixtures with different contents of PET, in order to obtain the strength parameters of the soil-PET mixtures. The clayey soil used was mixed with 5%, 10^% and 20% of crushed PET by dry weight. Characterization tests were performed such as particle size distribution, Atterberg limits and the standard compaction test on the samples. Direct Shear tests at vertical stresses of 0.5 kg / cm², 1.0 kg / cm² and 2.0 kg / cm² were done on the soil and mixtures. The results show that the soil strength parameters are influenced by the addition of the crushed PET, since it improves the characteristics of friction angle and cohesion of the Soil-PET mixture. The improvement also depends upon the confining level, which the samples were tested. By comparing the results, show that the mixture with 20% crushed PET stands out against the others, since it has a greater degree of improvement in the soil. These mixtures can be used in geotechnical works, so this research proposes to contribute to a better understanding and interpretation of the behavior of clayey soil reinforced with PET waste.