Strength and water stability of a fiber-reinforced cemented loess

Abstract

This article discusses the strength and water stability of fiber-reinforced cemented loess (FRCL). The unconfined compressive tests, the anti-erosion tests and the Cantabro tests were performed for soaked and non-soaked specimens. The aforementioned specimens were made by mixing of loess with different cement and fiber ratios. Results indicate that the mixing of cement and fiber significantly improve the strength and the water stability of samples. The unconfined compressive strength (UCS) of samples increases with the increase of cement content. The UCS first increases and thereafter decreases with the increase of fiber content; the optimum content of fiber ranges between 0.3% and 0.45%. The total erosion mass and the erosion rate of samples were decreased by increasing the cement and fiber contents. It is pertinent to note that: (1) the anti-erosion performance of the fiber-reinforced soil was approximately 26-75% higher than that of the cemented soil, and (2) the improvement of UCS was beneficial to the anti-erosion performance. The scattering process of samples can be divided into three stages, i.e., initial stage, rapid-scattering stage and stable stage.