Mechanical behaviour of sandy soils embankments treated with cement and reinforced with discrete elements (fibres)

Abstract

It is well known that the reinforcement of the Soil is considered as a solution to its stability problems. This technique ameliorates the mechanical and physical comportment of the soil. Based on this, this research paper aims at investigating the behaviour of a specific type of dried-cemented-sandy soil reinforced with discrete elements such as polypropylene fiber basically through experimental tests. The latter are a series of consolidated drained triaxial tests which were carried out on samples of sand that are prepared with 0, 3 and 6% of cement, reinforced with 1% of polypropylene fiber (12, 18 mm) randomly distributed. Furthermore, those contents are measured by the volume of dry sand. In addition to these tests, a parametric study has also been conducted on a road embankment using a finite element program such as Plaxis 2D in order to observe the variation of different parameters like safety factor and the displacements (Ut, Ux, Uy). The test results showed that the addition of cement and polypropylene fiber of different accommodations increased both cohesion and friction angle of sands while the numerical results indicated that the presence of these additions improved the safety factor and decreased significantly the displacements.

Value Coefficient of Polyethylene Fiber Soil Embankment Slope Based on Response Surface Analysis

“…A finite element model of the polypropylene fiber soil embankment slope was established, and the effect of freeze–thaw cycling on it was analyzed by Gong and He [ 19 ]. A series of consolidated drained triaxial tests were carried out by Med Bouteben to obtain the mechanical parameters of the polypropylene fiber-reinforced cement–sand soils, which were applied to the numerical analysis of the embankment finite element model [ 20 ]. Li conducted a model roadbed test to investigate the effect of polypropylene fiber reinforcement on the settlement of the model roadbed, and the experimental results illustrated that the settlement of the fiber-reinforced soil roadbed is substantially reduced under high pressure [ 21 ].…”