Shear Strength Enhancement Prediction of Sand–Fiber Mixtures Using Genetic Expression Programming
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 33, Issue 11
Abstract
A series of direct shear tests were conducted on fine, medium, and coarse sand–fiber mixtures subjected to normal pressures of 100, 200, and 300 kPa. Soils were mixed with 0.1%, 0.2%, and 0.3% fibers 6, 12, and 18 mm in length to assess their effects on shear strength characteristics of samples with 70% relative density. Genetic expression programming (GEP) was also evolved to envisage strengths and strains of sand–fiber mixtures. Test results showed that in general, fiber inclusion improves composite characteristics with fine sand–fiber mixtures showing the greatest enhancements in shear strengths. Inclusion of 6 and 12 mm fibers in coarse sand failed to improve strength characteristics due to the inadequate anchorage length and ineffective interactions with grains. Amid the factors investigated, fiber length and concentration, normal stress, and gradation proved to be the most influential. GEP results revealed high accuracy with coefficients of determination of 0.945 and 0.951 for training and testing phases, respectively, and sensitivity analysis illustrated that interaction is most sensitive to fiber length and the coefficient of curvature.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request, including the GEP model.
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Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 33 • Issue 11 • November 2021
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© 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
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Received: Dec 9, 2020
Accepted: Mar 24, 2021
Published online: Sep 9, 2021
Published in print: Nov 1, 2021
Discussion open until: Feb 9, 2022
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