Composite Soil Made of Rubber Fibers from Waste Tires, Blended Sugar Cane Molasses, and Kaolin Clay

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The authors introduced in their study an experimental analysis of a composite soil created from rubber fibers blended with molasses and kaolin clay.

I have read the manuscript carefully and some remarks must be considered before accepting it.

Some critical questions are to answered.

1- The authors uses Molasses as a bonding material. The Molasses is an organic material which is chemically analyzed with time. How could we come over this problem?

2- What is the viscosity of Molasses? At what temperature did the author do their experiments? What about the effect of temperature on the viscosity of the Molasses which in turn will lose the bondage between materials?

3- The organic nature of the Molasses will lead to microorganisms growth, as stated in the manuscript, but the authors didn't introduce any treatment of that issue.

4- The use of the obtained soil is not clear in the abstract. It must be declared explicitly.

5- In page 2, line 88, is it RPTF or RTPF? Please, correct.

6- In page 2, line 90, the authors stated that the average size of rubber is 46 m !! Please, correct.

7- In page 3, Table 3 is mentioned before Table 2. Please, interchange both of them.

8- What is the speed of mixing in Hobart N50 mixer?

9- Why did the authors make XRD for only M0 and M12? what about the author mixes?

10- What is the failure resistance in UCS test?

11- In 3.4, what is the mix M1??

12- In page 5, at what time did the microorganisms start to grow??

13- Please, revise the titles of Fig. 1, 3 and 4. Delete the verbs "show" , "present", "are" ...

14- Figure 5 is not clear. I suggest to separate M0,M2,M4 in one figure and the remaining mixes in other figure.

15- In Figure 7 b and c, the mixes names are not correct.

16- In the discussion, the authors stated that the cost of using Molasses is less than cement. What about the compressive strength and durability of both of them? Is Molasses still better?!

17- Some references are not in English like 3 and 4. Please, revise

Finally, the previous comments must be answered before reconsidering the manuscript.

 

Author Response

Dear Reviewer 1, thanks a lot for your revision, below you will find response to all comments, also introduced and highlighted in the paper.

 

Thanks a lot.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

This is an interesting and original article concerning the use of waste material, such as Recycled Tire Polymer Fibers (RTPF) and sugar molasses to create composite soil. The authors very clearly determined the aim of the study. The introduction presents the scientific problem in a comprehensive manner. The paper is well written - clear motivation, explanations. The discussion includes an economic analysis of using molasses versus cement for soil reinforcement. However, before allowing for publication, I would suggest making some minor improvements:

 

- Table 1 has a different style, it looks like an imported image.

- Is point 3.5 necessary? Text reads better when tables and pictures are near their citation.

- in Figures 7a and b, the results should be presented in MPa.

- Section 3.3 How many samples were tested in each batch, from photo 8 it appears that 3 cylinders ?

- Are the frames surrounding figures 5 and 6 necessary ? I propose to remove them, especially that they are of different thickness.

 

Notes for future research:

- In the samples, the same proportion of fiber was always used. Future research is needed for different proportions of molasses and fiber.

- Tests in an environmental chamber (temperature, humidity) and also frost resistance tests would be valuable.

Author Response

Dear reviewer, thanks a lot for your revision, below you will find response to all comments, also introduced and highlighted in the paper.

 

Best regards.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

The paper can be accepted now. Only an error in reference citation in page 4 line 187.

I wish the authors will continue their research to avoid the microorganisms growth. I will be pleased to read about their new work.