Influence of Waste Toothbrush Fiber on Strength and Freezing–Thawing Behavior in High Plasticity Clay

The use of waste materials in civil engineering applications has gained importance nowadays. Consuming limited natural resources and increasing waste disposal costs have led researchers to evaluate waste materials for different geotechnical applications. In this respect, some waste materials are used as reinforcement in soils to improve their engineering properties. The main objective of this paper was to investigate the usability of waste polypropylene fiber as a reinforcement material in high plasticity fine-grained soils. For this purpose, waste toothbrush bristle (WTB) was used as a polypropylene fiber reinforcement material and added to fine-grained soil at ratios of 0.2%, 0.4%, 0.6% and 0.8% by dry total weight. The effect of WTB on freezing–thawing behavior and unconfined compression strength of unreinforced and reinforced clayey soil was evaluated. The results indicated that addition of WTB to high plasticity clay improved its behavior against freezing–thawing. Also, undrained shear strength increases with respect to increment in WTB ratio.