Shear Strength of Fiber-Reinforced Sands
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 136, Issue 3
Abstract
Soil reinforcement using discrete randomly distributed fibers has been widely investigated over the last 30 years. Several models were suggested to estimate the improvement brought by fibers to the shear strength of soils. The objectives of this paper are to (1) supplement the data available in the literature on the behavior of fiber-reinforced sands; (2) study the effect of several parameters which are known to affect the shear strength of fiber-reinforced sands; and (3) investigate the effectiveness of current models in predicting the improvement in shear strength of fiber-reinforced sand. An extensive direct shear testing program was implemented using coarse and fine sands tested with three types of fibers. Results indicate the existence of a fiber-grain scale effect which is not catered for in current prediction models. A comparison between measured and predicted shear strengths indicates that the energy dissipation model is effective in predicting the shear strength of fiber-reinforced specimens in reference to the tests conducted in this study. On the other hand, the effectiveness of the predictions of the discrete model is affected by the parameters of the model, which may depend on the test setup and the procedure used for mixing the fibers.
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Acknowledgments
The writers would like to acknowledge the support of the University Research Board (URB) at the American University of Beirut (AUB) for funding this research program.
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Information
Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 136 • Issue 3 • March 2010
Pages: 490 - 499
Copyright
© 2010 ASCE.
History
Received: May 19, 2008
Accepted: Aug 31, 2009
Published online: Feb 12, 2010
Published in print: Mar 2010
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