Studies on the Dosage of Fiber-Reinforced Cemented Soils

This paper reports on the development of a dosage methodology based of compressive strength for artificially cemented fiber-reinforced soils. The controlling parameters evaluated were the fiber content ($F$), volumetric cement content ($C_{\mathrm{iv}}$), porosity ($\eta$), and cement/porosity ratio ($C_{\mathrm{iv}}/\eta$). To evaluate the influence of each parameter on the soil response, a number of unconfined compression tests were carried out. The results show that fiber insertion in the cemented soil, for all dry unit weights and for the whole range of cement dosages studied, causes an increase in unconfined compressive strength. The unconfined compressive strength ($q_u$) increased linearly with the amount of cement ($C_{\mathrm{iv}}$) for both the fiber-reinforced and nonreinforced specimens. It was also shown that the cement/porosity ratio, in which volumetric cementitious material content is adjusted by an exponent (0.28 for all the fiber-reinforced and nonreinforced cemented soil mixtures) to give unique correlations for each mixture, is a good parameter for the evaluation of the unconfined compressive strength of the fiber-reinforced and nonreinforced cemented soil studied. Finally, a unique dosage relationship can be achieved linking the unconfined compressive strength of the sandy soil studied with fiber content ($F$) and adjusted cement/porosity ratio ($C_{\mathrm{iv}}/\eta$).