Experimental study on the monotonic mechanical behavior of completely decomposed granite soil reinforced by disposable face-mask chips

Experimental Study on the Mechanical Behavior of Sandy Soil Reinforced by Disposable Face Mask Chips under Different Stress Paths

“…The volume strain of samples increases with axial strain, indicating that all the samples are in the shear shrinkage state. It is consistent with the experimental result observed by Xu et al [17] that the volume of the sample is contracted first and then expanded with increasing axial strain when the confining pressures are 30 kPa and 60 kPa, and no dilation occurred in the samples when the confining pressure is 120 kPa. Under the conventional triaxial stress path, the addition of mask chips increases the volume shrinkage of the sample, consistent with the finding of Benziane et al [39] that adding fiber would increase the shrinkage trend of soil and limit its expansion.…”

“…Under both conventional and true triaxial stress paths, the E 0 and E 50 of samples increase first and then decrease with f m , indicating that the proper addition of MCs can effectively improve the soil stiffness, but the excessive addition of MCs may affect the integrity of the soil and cause the loss of soil stiffness. Xu et al [17] obtained similar results from the conventional triaxial compressive test on mask-chip-reinforced soil. For different confining pressures, the E 0 and E 50 of samples can be increased by 20-35% when the volumetric content of mask chips was between 0.3% and 0.5%.…”

“…The research indicated that the addition of mask chips (MCs) can improve the shear strength and energy absorption capacity of granular soil and reduce its dilatancy and stiffness. Xu et al [17] conducted a series of consolidated-drained (CD) triaxial tests at different confining pressures on samples mixed with complete decomposed granite and mask chips, and observed the samples with scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The research found that the soil strength was improved significantly when the volumetric content of mask chips was between 0.3% and 1.0% at high confining pressure.…”

Improving concrete fatigue resistance with COVID-19 rubber gloves: An innovative sustainable approach

“…According to varying concrete volume contents from high to low, crushed isolation gowns were applied, and various concrete performance parameters were enhanced. Additionally, it was noted that when 0.5% of mask pieces were added to soil at a confining pressure of 120KPa, the maximum shear strength increased to 22.3% [18] . In order to strengthen rutting resistance, the road asphalt was mixed with mask pieces by Wang [9] .…”

Advances on concrete strength properties after adding polypropylene fibers from health personal protective equipment (PPE) of COVID-19: Implication on waste management and sustainable environment

“…Following the COVID-19 outbreak in 2019, several methods have been suggested to benefit from the PPE through either applying decontamination methods (e.g., chemical sanitization or other high-heat treatment options; Parashar and Hait, 2021 ) and thus reusing these PPE or through their integration into other lifetime products such as in road construction ( Abdullah and Abd El Aal, 2021 ; Saberian et al, 2021 ), soil reinforcement ( Xu et al, 2022 ), sound porous absorber ( Maderuelo-Sanz et al, 2021 ) and in concrete industry ( Kilmartin-Lynch et al, 2021 ).…”