Effects of Polypropylene Fibers on the Shear Strength of Sandy Soil

Abstract

This paper presents the effect of two types of polypropylene fibers on shear strength parameters of sandy soil. To achieve the goals of this research, a sandy soil was obtained from a depth of 40 cm from the natural ground surface around American University of Sharjah. Two types of polypropylene fibers; one highly flexible with flat profile and the other with relatively high stiffness and crimpled profile were used in this study with four different aspect ratios (L/D) for each type. The initial physical properties of the sand such as specific gravity, angle of internal friction and shear strength were obtained in accordance with American Standard for Testing and Materials (ASTM). The sandy soils were mixed with the two types of fibers at different percentages by dry weight of the sand and four different aspect ratios. The test results of the study showed that the shear strength of the sand increased with increasing the flexible flat profile fibers content. Also it was noticed that by increasing the aspect ratio of the flexible flat profile the angle of internal friction and the shear strength increased. The crimpled profile fiber increased the shear strength of the sand under high normal load and has small or no effect on shear strength of the sand at low aspect ratio under low normal load.