Effect of relative density on plate loading tests on fibre-reinforced sand

Abstract

Plate load tests were carried out on un-reinforced sand and sand reinforced with fibres, compacted at relative densities (DR) of 30%, 50% and 90%. For the reinforced sand, 24 mm long polypropylene fibres were added, a concentration of 0·5% by dry weight. The analysis of the results indicates that the soil load-settlement behaviour is significantly influenced by the fibre inclusion, changing the kinematics of failure. The best performance was obtained for the densest (DR = 90%) fibre-sand mixture, where a significant change in the load-settlement behaviour was observed at very small (almost zero) displacements. However, for the loose to medium dense sand (DR = 30% and 50%), significant settlements (50 mm and 30 mm respectively) were required for the differences in the load-settlement responses to appear. The settlement required for this divergence to occur could best be represented using a logarithmic relationship between settlement and relative density. The overall behaviour seems to support the argument that inclusion of fibres increases strength of sandy soil by a mechanism that involves the partial suppression of dilation (and hence produces an increase in effective confining pressure, and a consequent increase in shear strength).

Strain-hardening behaviour of fibre-reinforced sand in view of filament geometry

“…The authors also tested this mixing procedure in the field with results that corroborate the tests performed in the laboratory (e.g. Consoli et al 2009). 2.…”

The Liquefaction Behavior of Poorly Graded Sands Reinforced with Fibers

“…Compared to conventional improvement methods using reinforcement, fibers have some advantages like prevention of potential weak planes which mostly form parallel to plane oriented reinforcement and conservation of isotropic shear strength characteristics [1]. e reinforced soil behavior of fibers was studied by researchers in the last decades, but focusing the problem only under static conditions [2][3][4][5]. It was revealed that using fiber reinforcement in soil increased the shear strength of soil and improved the ductile behavior and reduced the strength loss observed after the peak strength was achieved.…”

“…Studies by Consoli et al [4] and Consoli et al [14] focused on consolidated drained triaxial tests to examine the ber reinforcement e ect on the mechanical behavior of sand admixed with varying cement content. Specimens with a relative density of 70% were prepared, and empirical equations to determine peak and residual strength based on cement content, ber content, and con ning pressure were proposed in Consoli et al [4] and Consoli et al [14]. e resistance to liquefaction in ber-reinforced soils increased the number of cycles required to cause liquefaction under undrained loading conditions [15][16][17][18][19][20].…”

Investigation on the interfacial mechanical behavior of wave-shaped fiber reinforced soil by pullout test

“…In the past decades, a large number of experiments have been conducted to investigate the mechanical behavior of fiber reinforced soil, including triaxial compression test (Consoli et al, 1998(Consoli et al, , 2005(Consoli et al, , 2007a; Kaniraj and Gayathri, 2003;Hendry et al, 2014), unconfined compression test (Kaniraj and Havanagi, 2001;Tang et al, 2007;Olgun, 2013;Consoli and Bassani, 2010;Yi et al, 2015;Kumar and Gupta, 2016), direct shear test (Prabakar and Sridhar, 2002;Yetimoglu and Salbas, 2003;Cai et al, 2006;Consoli et al, 2007a), ring shear test (Casagrande et al, 2006;Consoli et al, 2007b), plate load test (Consoli et al, 2003a(Consoli et al, , 2003b(Consoli et al, , 2009, CBR test (Yetimoglu et al, 2005), tensile test (Consoli et al, 2011;Divya et al, 2013;Li et al, 2014;Viswanadham et al, 2010;Tang et al, 2015a,b;Correia et al, 2015), swelling test (Viswanadham et al, 2009), desiccation test (Miller and Rifal, 2004;Tang et al, 2012) and other tests (Gray and Ohashi, 1983;Gray and Maher, 1989;Nataraj and McManis, 1997;Santoni and Webster, 2001;Michalowski and Cermak, 2003;Tang et al, 2010;Liu et al, 2011;…”