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GEOTEXTILE FROM PINEAPPLE LEAVES AND BIO-GROUT FOR SLOPE

STABILIZATION AND EROSION CONTROL

Article in International Journal of GEOMATE · August 2019

DOI: 10.21660/2019.60.8319

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 International Journal of GEOMATE, Aug. 2019, Vol.17, Issue 60, pp.219-224
Geotec., Const. Mat. & Env., DOI: https://doi.org/10.21660/2019.60.8319
ISSN: 2186-2982 (Print), 2186-2990 (Online), Japan

GEOTEXTILE FROM PINEAPPLE LEAVES AND BIO-GROUT FOR

SLOPE STABILIZATION AND EROSION CONTROL

*R.C. Omar1, Hairin Taha2 R. Roslan3 and I.N.Z. Baharuddin4

1,2,3,4
Institute of Infrastructure Energy, Universiti Tenaga Nasional, Malaysia

*Corresponding Author, Received: 6 June 2018, Revised: 21 Feb. 2019, Accepted: 21 March 2019

ABSTRACT: Geotextiles are widely used in the civil engineering projects as ideal materials for building,
road and railway constructions for separation, reinforcement, filtration, drainage, ground and pavement
stabilization and soil erosion control. Geotextile made of synthetic polymeric products dominates the current
market more compared to natural geotextiles due to many advantages such as the function, performance and
variable applications. However, synthetic geotextiles are non-biodegradable and expensive, and may have an
impact on the environment. On the contrary, natural geotextiles from plant fibers offers sustainable
alternative that is safe and economical. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of
natural fibers from pineapple leaves and luffa as geotextile materials in combination with bio-grout from
vegetable waste with respect to erosion control. Application of these two methods at the experimental site
showed that the natural geotextile has significant influence in controlling surface erosion and reducing soil
loss. These results demonstrated that the combined application of natural geotextile and bio-grout can
provide an effective measure in slope protection against erosion.

Keywords: Geotextile, Pineapple leaves, Luffa, Soil erosion, Bio-grout

1. INTRODUCTION dioxide emission which is now a global concern

[3]. Geosynthetics are more commercialized and
Soil erosion is considered a worldwide problem extensively used because of its wide range of
that affects agriculture and the surrounding applications in solving geotechnical problems.
environments. The rate and magnitude of soil However, in the long run, this can lead to
erosion is greatly influenced by rainfall intensity environmental pollution due to the accumulation
and runoff, soil erodibility, slope gradient and of plastic debris from the polymers that are non-
length and vegetation. Deposition of eroded mass destructive which may have direct impact on the
materials can cause damage to roadways and ecology. On the contrary, geotextiles from natural
drainage channels [1]. Soil erosion can be avoided fibers are affordable, environmental friendly and
by applying a protective cover on the soil to create bio-degradable in nature. The natural fibers will
a barrier to the erosive agent and by altering the degrade and subsequently turn into organic
physical properties of the soil through chemical compost and blend with the soil, thus providing
grouting and mechanical means. nutrients for growth of vegetation and promoting
Geotextiles are permeable fabrics used in soil microbial activity [4]. Some of the natural
association with soil or earth for separation, fibers used for geotextiles include jute, coconut,
filtration, drainage, reinforcement and protection sisal and coir which are abundantly available in
to enhance the engineering performance of soil tropical countries such as India and Pakistan.
structure. The usage of geotextiles in road Geotextiles made of jute, for example, were
construction and soil erosion control dates all the effective in improving the soil characteristics and
way back to the first millennium BC where the have been used extensively in various technical
roads were reinforced with geotextiles made of applications. Natural geotextiles are increasingly
natural fibers [2]. used in geotechnical applications due to the
In soil erosion control, geotextiles act as a growing effort of extensive research. Nevertheless,
protective cover and help to stabilize the soil the usage of natural fiber geotextiles is still
surface by minimizing the effect of soil erosion relatively small, constitute only less than 10 % of
caused by erosive agents such as water and wind. the present global consumption [5].
Geotextile can be synthetic or natural. In recent years, many studies on bio-grout were
Geosynthetics are mostly made up of polymeric carried out by several researchers for soil
products such as polyamide and polyethylene improvement and concrete repair [6]. Bio-grouting
sourced from hydro-carbon and petrochemicals. is a new ground improvement technique in
The manufacturing of these materials somehow geotechnical engineering practice based on
contribute to greenhouse effects and carbon microbial carbonate precipitation (MCP) that can

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change the mechanical properties of soil. MCP slope failure has occurred (Figure 1). The slope
refers to a bio-mechanism process involving surface has undergone soil erosion due to rainfall
microbial activities and bio-chemical pathways impact. The sample was taken at the center of the
such as denitrification, ureolysis and
slope, at 70 m elevation. Sample was taken using
ammonification [7]. The end-products resulted in
mineral precipitation that helps bind soil particles a cylindrical tube measuring 38 mm and 60 mm in
together through bio-clogging or bio-cementation diameter, at a depth less than 1.5 m. The soil was
process. This helps to improve the texture by classified as sandy SILT with intermediate
filling the voids within the soil matrix that plasticity. The liquid limit of the soil was 38.38%.
eventually increase the strength and stiffness of the The liquidity index (LI) of the soil where the
soil. Many studies have reported that the MCP relative consistency of a cohesive soil in natural
method is very effective in increasing the shear state was -0.31 which was less than 1. The soil was
strength and decreasing the permeability of sandy
well graded and has a high percentage of fine
soil [8-9].
In laboratory studies, specific ureolytic grained particles of more than 50% (63.74%). The
bacterial strain such as Sporocarcina pasteruii has data for soil sample is summarized in Table 1.
frequently been used to induce microbial calcite
precipitation. This bacterium plays an important
role in producing calcium carbonate (CaCO3)
precipitation through urea hyrolysis. For bio-
cementation or bio-mineralization to occur, urea
and calcium chloride (CaCl2) are needed to
provide the necessary nutrients [10-11]. Other
studies on bio-calcification have used other
alternative medium such as chicken manure
affluent as a good source of nutrients to promote
bacterial growth for microbial cementation
because large scale experiments of MCP process
can be costly [12].
Another innovative study by our research team
has demonstrated that bio-grout from vegetable
waste can also improve the engineering properties
of liquefied soil by increasing the soil shear
strength and reducing soil permeability through Fig. 1 Experimental site
the microbial activities in the bio-grout fluid [13].
Apart of that, the bio-grout was also proven to be
an effective grouting material for soil erosion Table 1 Basic properties of soil sample
control as demonstrated using slope models [14].
In view of the above, combined applications of Properties Values
natural geotextile made of pineapple leaves and
bio-grout from vegetable waste may provide Soil Type Sandy SILT
sustainable and economical solutions for soil Group Symbol ML
reinforcement and slope stabilization compared to Gravel fraction 2.82 %
that of chemical and mechanical methods. This Sand fraction 33.45 %
new design can promote the reusing and recycling Silt fraction 63.74 %
of agricultural waste that can benefit the economy. Coefficient of 19.74
The main objective of this research was to observe uniformity
and monitor the effectiveness of the combined
Coefficient of 2.75
methods of bio-grout injections and geotextile
from pineapple leaves with respect to soil erosion gradation
on the slope surface. Specific gravity 2.71
Liquid limit 38.38 %
2. EXPERIMENTAL Plastic limit 30.88 %
Plasticity index 7.5
2.1 Experimental site Liquidity index -0.13(<1)
Moisture content 29.9 %
The soil sample was collected at the College of
Engineering, Universiti Tenaga Nasional
(UNITEN) adjacent to a drainage system where a

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2.2 Geotextile material and design 2.3 Geotextile application

In this study, the natural geotextiles were In this study, the natural geotextile was
constructed from pineapple leaves and luffa. assembled as surfacing to prevent the removal of
Pineapple or locally known as ‘Nanas’ is a tropical soil particles from the soil surface. At the site, the
plant native to South East Asia and Malaysia is geotextiles were arranged following the grid
one of the major producers [14-15]. Pineapple leaf concept for monitoring and analysis purposes.
is rich in cellulose and biodegradable. A study on Three grids were assigned as shown in Fig. 3. Grid
pineapple leave fiber showed that they are suitable A represented a control grid which did not have
for building and construction materials due to its any bio-grout or geotextile (negative control). In
highest cellulosic content [16-17]. grid B, the soil was treated with bio-grout only,
Luffa acutangula is extensively used and in grid C, both bio-grout and geotextile were
throughout the world as hybrid biodegradable combined together. The observation and
composites. Luffa is high water permeability, low monitoring of the slope surface at the site was
cost and biodegradable [18]. It has a thick texture carried out every seven days for five weeks. Fig.
that prevents the water to pass through easily. 4 shows Grid A, B and C on the first day of
Luffa was added to strengthen the structure of the geotextile and bio-grout application.
geotextile by providing open grid like
configuration to support the pineapple leaves.
Factors that affect the construction of
geotextile include the type of seam, seam location,
type of stich and thread, and the number of row of
stitching [19]. The type of seam is important to
develop a good strength for the geotextile. The
common seam types are S-seam and J-seam. The
S-seam combines two sections of fabrics with one
or more rows of stitching. The J seam type was
done by overlapping two parts of fabric and
folding them to produce a thickness of four plies.
This type of seam has more strength com-pared to
other type of seam. The strength of seam can also Fig. 3 Grid distribution
be affected by the placement of seam. For fabric
geotextile, the seam is sewn 1 to 1.5 inches from
the edge and folded to create a double plies
thickness.
In this work, the design of the geotextile from
pineapple and luffa followed the J-seam type that
was previously described [20]. The geotextile
layers of dried pineapple leaves were assembled
together with luffa fabric and sewn using jute yarn
that has a diameter of 1.2 mm. See Fig.2.

Fig. 4 Application on day 1

2.4 Preparation of bio-grout

The bio-grout was obtained through the

fermentation process of mixed vegetable waste
consisting of spinach, cucumber, water spinach,
long bean and cabbage as previously described
[21]. The vegetable wastes were fermented for one
Fig. 2 Geotextile from pineapple leaves and luffa

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month. After that, the extract was filtered to get the

bio-grout fluid. The flow chart of the overall
process is shown in Figure 5. The bio- grout
contained the essential elements such as silica, iron
and calcium needed for the bio-cementation
process. These elements are essential for the pro-
duction of construction biomaterials in bio-
technological processes [22]. Figure 6 shows the
extract of bio-grout liquid after fermentation
process.

Fig. 7 Bio-grout injection using by gravity

3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

After 28 days, observation showed that new

batch of grass has grown in grid B and C that had
bio-grout injected compared to that of Grid A (Fig.
8). The geotextile in Grid C has undergone natural
degradation process throughout the experimental
period but the soil underneath the geotextile layer
did not show any significant sign of further erosion.
Fig. 5 Process of bio-grout preparation
There were large amounts of trapped soil and small
gravel underneath the geotextiles. The geotextiles
did not degrade quickly, thus giving ample time
for the surface of the soil to be stabilized again.
Furthermore, degraded natural geotextile promotes
new vegetation and contributes to the soil nutrients
through microbial activity [22].
On the contrary, the slope surface in grid A and
B were slightly eroded. The minimum optimum
curing time was observed on day 21 after the bio-
grout treatment. After 35 days of treatment, Grid B
was fully covered by grass compared to that of
Grid A. In grid C, the geotextile has degraded by
95% and the surface was partially covered by grass
Fig. 6 Bio-grout liquid as shown in Figure 9. There was no significant
sign of soil erosion in Grid B and C.

2.5 Grouting method Implementation of bio-grout has encouraged

microbial activity in the soil to induce bio-
The bio-grout in liquid form was injected into mineralization and simultaneously increase the
the ground using gravity. PVC (polyvinyl chloride)
content of organic matter resulting in the increases
pipe with 25 mm in diameter was cut into 1 m
length. Small holes were drilled on the pipes (5 in biomass that will spur the growth of vegetation
mm apart) to allow the bio-grout to flow out in cover. The structure of soil and soil fertility were
parallel during the grouting process. The pipes improved because of the greater availability of
were inserted into the soil about 500 mm to 700 nutrients and organic substance. Bio-grout from
mm in depth and each grid consisted of 11 pipes vegetable waste has the potential to replace
(Fig. 7). The grouting rate was approximately 1.8 chemical stabilizers due to the presence of
mL / s or 30 minutes per liter. Overall, 45 liters of
indigenous bacteria as well as mineral contents
bio-grout liquid were used in the grouting process.
that can induce the bio-cementation and bio-
clogging process between the sand particles. The

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 International Journal of GEOMATE, Aug. 2019, Vol.17, Issue 60, pp.219-224

application of bio-grout treatment and geotextile enhanced the soil stability. This study showed that
from pineapple leaves and luffa helped supported the combined application of natural geotextile
the growth of grass and reinforced the slope from pineapple leaves and bio-grout from
vegetable waste offers an alternative method to
surface from erosion.
current geotechnical methods for slope stability.
The use of natural fibers from plants and
agriculture waste is more sustainable, renewable,
cost effective and energy efficient. In future study,
more tests will be carried out to evaluate the
engineering properties of the treated soil.

4. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This study was supported by Project

Management Office, UNITEN (RJO 10289176).
Authors would like to thank the FEG group from
UNITEN and Mr. Asmirol for their assistance.

Fig. 8 Observation of Grid A, B and C on day 28 3. REFERENCES

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