This study compared the performance of steel and polypropylene fibres, with a dosage of 50 kg/m3, used to reinforce a soft soil chemically stabilised for a constant binder quantity of 375 kg/m3. The experimental programme is comprised by the study of four kinds of fibres with four types of tests, to evaluate the unconfined compressive strength, direct tensile strength, split tensile strength and flexural strength. The results indicate that the reinforcement with fibres decreases the brittleness of the composite material and that the highest ductility is obtained with the use of poltpropylene fibres. The experiments show that the effect of the inclusion of fibres in the soil–binder paste depends on the type of fibre and the failure mechanism, i.e., the strain level imposed by each kind of test. Thus, although the use of any type of fibres has a detrimental impact (17 to 32%) on the compressive strength, but it has a positive effect on the tensile strength when evaluated by flexural strength tests (25 to 147%). However, if the tensile strength is characterised by split tensile strength tests, the addition of steel or polyproylene fibres has a negligible or a positive impact (2 to 47%), respectively, while the results of direct tensile strength tests indicate the positive impact of steel fibres (16 to 27%) and a detrimental effect of the polypropylene fibres (35 to 45%).
This paper describes the effect of binder and fibre quantity on the mechanical behaviour of a soft soil stabilised with binders and reinforced with steel fibres. Four types of tests were carried out – unconfined compressive strength (UCS), direct tensile strength (DTS), split tensile strength (STS) and flexural strength (FS) tests. The effects of binder quantity (with and without steel fibres) and the effects of fibre quantity were analysed. The results obtained showed that the compressive strength, tensile strength and stiffness increased with binder quantity, but, with the addition of steel fibres, the behaviour changed depending on the strain mechanism of each test. In general, the presence of a low quantity of steel fibres had a detrimental effect in terms of UCS and a negligible impact on the STS, while a beneficial effect was found for DTS and FS. As the fibre quantity was increased, the UCS, STS and FS tests revealed a decrease in brittleness, while the DTS tests showed brittle behaviour with an abrupt and complete loss of tensile strength after failure. The relationships between compressive and tensile strengths are presented in the paper.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.