TENSILE STRENGTH OF AALCALIZED OIL PALM EMPTY FRUIT BUNCH FIBER AND ITS IMPACT ON FIBER RESISTANCE IN SOIL

Soil is a material that has an important role in a construction or foundation, so that soil with good technical properties is needed. However, in reality, soil properties are often found to be unfavorable. The use of natural fibers, especially the fiber of oil palm empty fruit bunches (OPEFB) is used for soil stabilization, where there are two mechanisms to increase soil strength, namely tensile strength and soil fiber friction.This study aims to test the tensile strength of fibers that have been alkalized with NaOH compounds. Next, the OPEFB fiber is added to soft soil, compacted statically, and its compressive strength is tested. All test results were compared with the results of previous studies where the fibers used were not treated. The tensile strength of the fiber treated with curing in the soil from 1 day to 28 days old, both open and closed conditions was constant and increased up to 7.23%, this condition was better than untreated fiber where the tensile strength decreased with increasing fiber age. when soaked in the soil decreased by 60.11%. Meanwhile, the compressive strength increased with increasing age of the samples both in closed and open conditions, using a mixture of OPEFB fibers that had been treated and without treatment, the compressive strength samples aged 1 day to 7 days experienced an increase of 81.46%. Keywords : soil stabilization, soft clay soil, the tensile strength of fibers, durability