Shear Behavior of the Sand Reinforced with Continuous Fibers

Fiber-reinforced soil technique uses fibers embedded in the soil to increase the shear strength of the reinforced soil through the soil-fiber interaction. In addition, the work can be vegetated for sustainable development of the environment. Thus, this technique provides an alternative structure that is safe, economic, as well as having more environmental amenity.he purpose of this study is to investigate the shear mechanism of the fiber-reinforced soil through direct shear tests. The main variables for the tests include fiber type, fiber content, fiber diameter and fiber orientation. In order to investigate the effect of fiber orientation on the shear behavior, samples are frozen after testing to observe the deformation of fibers within the sample.ccording to the test results, at the same fiber content, soil reinforced with continuous fibers have higher shear strength and more ductile than that with discrete fibers. In addition, the increased strength varied with the normal stress. Under different normal stresses, fiber-reinforced soils have different optimum fiber contents, ranging increases from 1.5 ~ 2.5%. Thus, theoretically, the fiber content may be reduced as the depth. Besides, the fiber diameter does not have a significant influence on the first peak of the shear strength of the reinforced soil, but it does affect its ultimate shear strength, with better effect for thinner fibers. In addition, the orientations of fibers influence the reinforcing effect as well.