Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Effect of randomly distributed fibre on triaxial shear behavior of loess

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Bulletin of Engineering Geology and the Environment Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Soil reinforcement using randomly distributed fibres to improve the shear strength has been identified as an effective and environment-friendly technique in engineering applications. Loess used in geotechnical constructions can suffer from cracking due to shear failure. To increase loess shear strength, triaxial compression tests were carried out to evaluate the effect of randomly distributed fibre reinforcement on the mechanical response of loess soil to load. In the present investigation, five groups of loess specimens were prepared with three fibre contents (i.e., 0.5%, 0.75%, and 1% by weight of dry loess) and two different fibre lengths (i.e., 9 mm and 18 mm). The experimental results indicate that the addition of fibre to soil significantly improves the failure stress and shear strength parameters of the loess compared with unreinforced loess specimens. As fibre content increases up to 0.75%, the cohesion of reinforced soil is greatly improved, whereas the amount of increase of the internal friction angle is much less significant. However, the cohesion decreases with the fibre content exceeding 0.75%, as the excessive fibre content may influence the formation of homogeneous mixture, resulting in interfacial mechanical interactions between the fibre surface and soil to be impaired. Loess specimens reinforced with longer fibre exhibited a greater cohesion than those reinforced with shorter fibre, while the internal friction angle is nearly insensitive to the fibre length. As the fibre length increases from 9 to 18 mm, the cohesion increases by 23.2%. In addition, the macro-morphology of fibre-reinforced specimens after triaxial shear tests suggests that an appropriate choice of fibre has the potential to increase soil cracking resistance capacity.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Ali M (2011) Coconut fibre: a versatile material and its applications in engineering. J Civil Eng Constr Technol 2:189–197

    Google Scholar 

  • ASTM (2011) Method for consolidated drained triaxial compression test for soils. D 7181, Annual Book of Standards 4:1–11.

  • Babu GS, Vasudevan A, Haldar S (2008) Numerical simulation of fiber-reinforced sand behavior. Geotext Geomembr 26:181–188

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bakir N, Abbeche K, Panczer G (2017) Experimental study of the effect of the glass fibers on reducing collapse of collapsible soil. Geomech Eng 12:71–83

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bekyarova E, Thostenson E, Yu A, Kim H, Gao J, Tang J, Hahn H, Chou T-W, Itkis M, Haddon R (2007) Multiscale carbon nanotube− carbon fiber reinforcement for advanced epoxy composites. Langmuir 23:3970–3974

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cai S, Xu H, Jiang Q, Yang Y (2013) Novel 3D electrospun scaffolds with fibers oriented randomly and evenly in three dimensions to closely mimic the unique architectures of extracellular matrices in soft tissues: fabrication and mechanism study. Langmuir 29:2311–2318

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chakraborty TK, Dasgupta SP (1996) Randomly reinforced fly ash foundation material. In Indian geotechnical conference 1:231–235

  • Chu J, Leroueil S, Leong W (2003) Unstable behaviour of sand and its implication for slope instability. Can Geotech J 40:873–885

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Consoli NC, Prietto PD, Ulbrich LA (1998) Influence of fiber and cement addition on behavior of sandy soil. J Geotech Geoenviron 124:1211–1214

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Derbyshire E (2001) Geological hazards in loess terrain, with particular reference to the loess regions of China. Earth Sci Rev 54:231–260

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • GB/T50123 (1999) Standard for soil test method. Ministry of Construction of People’s Republic of China, Beijing

    Google Scholar 

  • Hejazi SM, Sheikhzadeh M, Abtahi SM, Zadhoush A (2012) A simple review of soil reinforcement by using natural and synthetic fibers. Constr Build Mater 30:100–116

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Holbery J, Houston D (2006) Natural-fiber-reinforced polymer composites in automotive applications. Jom 58:80–86

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jiang H, Cai Y, Liu J (2010) Engineering properties of soils reinforced by short discrete polypropylene fiber. J Mater Civ Eng 22:1315–1322

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jones CJ (2013) Earth reinforcement and soil structures. Elsevier

  • Kaniraj SR, Havanagi VG (2001) Behavior of cement-stabilized fiber-reinforced fly ash-soil mixtures. J Geotech Geoenviron 127:574–584

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kumar A, Walia BS, Mohan J (2006) Compressive strength of fiber reinforced highly compressible clay. Constr Build Mater 20:1063–1068

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Labuz JF, Zang A (2012) Mohr–Coulomb failure criterion. Rock Mech Rock Eng 45:975–979

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Langroudi AA, Jefferson I (2013) Collapsibility in calcareous clayey loess: a factor of stress-hydraulic history. Int J Geomate Geotech Constr Mater Environ 5:620–626

    Google Scholar 

  • Li, C., 2005. Mechanical response of fiber-reinforced soil.

    Google Scholar 

  • Li J, Tang C, Wang D, Pei X, Shi B (2014) Effect of discrete fibre reinforcement on soil tensile strength. J Rock Mech Geotech Eng 6:133–137

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ma Q, Yang Y, Xiao H, Xing W (2018) Studying shear performance of flax fiber-reinforced clay by triaxial test. Adv Civil Eng:2018

  • Maher M, Ho Y (1994) Mechanical properties of kaolinite/fiber soil composite. J Geotech Eng 120:1381–1393

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maher MH, Gray DH (1990) Static response of sands reinforced with randomly distributed fibers. J Geotech Eng 116:1661–1677

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maher MH, Woods RD (1990) Dynamic response of sand reinforced with randomly distributed fibers. J Geotech Eng 116:1116–1131

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Masoud AA, Aal AKA (2019) Three-dimensional geotechnical modeling of the soils in Riyadh city, KSA. Bull Eng Geol Environ 78:1–17

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Michalowski RL, C̆ermák J (2002) Strength anisotropy of fiber-reinforced sand. Comput Geotech 29:279–299

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Picarelli L (2009) Understanding to predict. In Landslides–Disaster Risk Reduction (pp. 63-88). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Prabakar J, Sridhar R (2002) Effect of random inclusion of sisal fibre on strength behaviour of soil. Constr Build Mater 16:123–131

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ranjan G, Vasan R, Charan H (1996) Probabilistic analysis of randomly distributed fiber-reinforced soil. J Geotech Eng 122:419–426

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Şenol A (2012) Effect of fly ash and polypropylene fibres content on the soft soils. Bull Eng Geol Environ 71:379–387

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shi H, Shao M (2000) Soil and water loss from the Loess Plateau in China. J Arid Environ 45:9–20

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shukla S, Sivakugan N, Singh A (2010) Analytical model for fiber-reinforced granular soils under high confining stresses. J Mater Civ Eng 22:935–942

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shukla SK (2014) Core principles of soil mechanics. Ice Publishing, London

  • Shukla SK (2017) Fundamentals of fibre-reinforced soil engineering. Springer, Singapore

  • Stevens J (1982) Unified soil classification system. Civil Eng—ASCE 52:61–62

    Google Scholar 

  • Tang C, Shi B, Gao W, Chen F, Cai Y (2007) Strength and mechanical behavior of short polypropylene fiber reinforced and cement stabilized clayey soil. Geotext Geomembr 25:194–202

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tanko A, Ijimdiya T, Osinubi K (2018) Effect of inclusion of randomly oriented sisal fibre on some geotechnical properties of lateritic soil. Geotech Geol Eng 36:3203–3209

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang Y-X, Guo P-P, Ren W-X, Yuan B-X, Yuan H-P, Zhao Y-L, Shan S-B, Cao P (2017) Laboratory investigation on strength characteristics of expansive soil treated with jute fiber reinforcement. Int J Geomech 17:04017101

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Xu L, Dai F, Tham L, Zhou Y, Wu C (2012) Investigating landslide-related cracks along the edge of two loess platforms in northwest China. Earth Surf Process Landf 37:1023–1033

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yang B-H, Weng X-Z, Liu J-Z, Kou Y-N, Jiang L, Li H-L, Yan X-C (2017) Strength characteristics of modified polypropylene fiber and cement-reinforced loess. J Cent South Univ 24:560–568

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yetimoglu T, Salbas O (2003) A study on shear strength of sands reinforced with randomly distributed discrete fibers. Geotext Geomembr 21:103–110

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yuan C, Moscariello M, Cuomo S, Chareyre B (2019) Numerical simulation of wetting-induced collapse in partially saturated granular soils. Granul Matter 21:64

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhou Jx, Chun yun Z, Jing ming Z, Xiao hui W, Zhou hong L (2002) Landslide disaster in the loess area of China. J For Res 13:157–161

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the editor and two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments which improve the quality of the manuscript greatly.

Funding

Financial support of the Major Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 41790440) and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (no. 2019T120871) are gratefully acknowledged. The support provided by China Scholarship Council (CSC) during a visit of the first author (Lian) to Texas A&M University is sincerely acknowledged.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Western China Mineral Resources and Geological Engineering, College of Geological Engineering and Surveying, Chang’an University, Xi’an, 710054, China

    Baoqin Lian, Jianbing Peng & Xinsheng Cui

  2. Department of Geology and Geophysics, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843-3115, USA

    Baoqin Lian & Hongbin Zhan

Authors
  1. Baoqin Lian
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Jianbing Peng
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Hongbin Zhan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Xinsheng Cui
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Jianbing Peng or Hongbin Zhan.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Lian, B., Peng, J., Zhan, H. et al. Effect of randomly distributed fibre on triaxial shear behavior of loess. Bull Eng Geol Environ 79, 1555–1563 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10064-019-01666-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10064-019-01666-0

Keywords

Search

Navigation