A Study on Freeze-Thaw Behavior of Randomly Distributed Fiber-Reinforced Soil

Abstract

The freeze-thaw behavior and compressive strength of soil play a significant role in various engineering applications, such as dams and clay liners in waste containment facilities. The discrete fiber reinforcement technique was proposed in order to increase the soil’s freeze-thaw behavior and its compressive strength. In this study, a series of unconfined compression and freeze-thaw tests were carried out in the laboratory in order to investigate the eects of randomly distributed polypropylene fibers with a length of 3 mm, 6 mm, and 12mm on a soil. Fiber percentage for each length was determined as 0.15%, 0.20%, and 0.25% of the total dry weight of the reinforced soil. The number of freeze-thaw cycles was taken as 1, 3, 5, and 10. The results of the study indicate that an increase of polypropylene fiber length caused an increase in peak stress values. On the other hand, the peak stress of unreinforced and reinforced soil samples generally decreases when the number of freeze-thaw cycles is increased. Samples reinforced with polypropylene fibers usually behave in a more ductile manner than unreinforced samples.