Evaluation of the shear strength behaviour of polypropylene and carbon fibre reinforced cohesive soils

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of various parameters involved, such as the strength properties of fibres, the relative size of fibres and grains and the rate of shear on the shear strength of polypropylene or carbon fibre reinforced cohesive soils with different percentage loading of fibres. The experimental results reveal that the inclusion of polypropylene fibres in soil increases considerably the shear strength. Contrarily, the inclusion of the carbon fibres did not produce a clear beneficial effect. In both cases, the shear strengths results are attributed to the different micro mechanisms involved in the fibre/soil interactions as studied through scanning electron micrographs. A significant outcome from the current work is that the strength of the reinforced soil composites is independent of the fibre mechanical indexes. © Maxwell Scientific Organization, 2014.