Compressive strength characteristics of hybrid fiber-reinforced cemented soil

ABSTRACT

Cemented soil commonly faces issues regarding strength, cracking resistance, and water stability when used in airstrip pavements. Three kinds of soil samples (low-liquid limit clay, high-liquid limit clay, and clayey sand), four kinds of fibers (basalt fiber, glass fiber, fine polypropylene fiber, and coarse polypropylene fiber), and one curing agent (cement) were analyzed in a systematic investigation of the compressive strength of fiber-reinforced cemented soil based on unconfined compressive strength (UCS), water stability, and failure mode. When 38 mm coarse polypropylene fiber at 0.3% content was mixed with 12 mm fine polypropylene fiber at 0.3% content, the hybrid fiber-reinforced cemented soil prepared after 7 d of saturated curing achieved UCS values of 4.18 (low-liquid limit clay), 4.36 (high-liquid limit clay), and 4.16 MPa (clayey sand), which satisfied airstrip requirements for the strength of base course. In this study, coarse polypropylene fiber was adopted and mixed with fine fiber to give full play to their respective advantages and effectively enhance the mechanical properties of cemented soil. The research results improved the understanding of the mechanical properties and reinforcement mechanism of coarse and fine fiber reinforced cemented soil in theory, and enriched the materials and methods of airstrip construction in engineering.

KEYWORDS:

• Airstrip
• solidified soil
• fiber reinforced soil
• compressive strength
• reinforcement mechanism

Data availability

All data, models, and code generated or used during the study appear in the submitted article.

Disclosure statement

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Additional information

Funding

The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 11972374], Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province [grant number BK20200429] and Natural Science Basic Research Program of Shaanxi [grant number 2020JQ-474].