Parametric study of glass fiber reinforced fine-grained soil with emphasis on microstructural analysis

ABSTRACT

A comprehensive experimental programme was undertaken to study the parametric effect on mechanical behaviour of fine-grained soils by inclusion of glass fibres. The behaviour of both unreinforced and reinforced soil specimens under uni-axial compression was systematically investigated corresponding to fibre length, fibre content, soil density, moisture content and loading rate. The unconfined compression strength test (UCS) results confirmed the reliance of UCS improvement index ($I_{UCS}$) on the selected parameters. For 18 mm fibre length and 0.9% fibre content, UCS improvement index of 71.68% was observed. The interface morphologies were studied by analysing the failure patterns and microstructural mechanisms through scanning electron microscopy. Artificial neural network (ANN) was used to develop an estimation model of the relationship between soil strength and different reinforcement parameters. This study is expected to help in better understanding of mechanical behaviour of FRS and its subsequent application in the field.

KEYWORDS:

• Fibre-reinforced soils
• unconfined compression strength
• microstructural mechanism
• artificial neural network

Acknowledgments

The study reported in this paper was conducted as part of author’s PhD work at National Institute of Technology Srinagar. The laboratory facilities provided by the Civil Engineering Department of the institute during the course of this study is gratefully acknowledged. Thanks are due to the Central Research Facility Centre (CRFC), NIT Srinagar for providing research facilities in conducting SEM And XRD tests. The first author acknowledges the financial support of Ministry of Education, Goverment of India (MoE) in the form of research fellowship.

Limitations and Future scope

The fiber-reinforced sample preparation requires more attention to ensure better homogeneity of the prepared samples at higher fiber contents. Further research is required to understand the reinforcement mechanism and mechanical performance under saturated conditions. More tests could be conducted varying multiple parameters simultaneously so that the accuracy of estimated model is improved.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article.

Additional information

Funding

The doctoral research funding from Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, in favour of the first author is duly acknowledged;Ministry of Human Resource Development India;

Notes on contributors

Nadeem Gul

Mr Nadeem Gul is a research scholar in the Department of Civil Engineering at National Institute of Technology Srinagar. He has pursued his Bachelors from Islamic University of Science and Technology Awantipora, J&K.

Bashir Ahmed Mir

Prof. B. A. Mir is among Senior Faculty of Civil Engineering Department of NIT Srinagar with more than two decades of teaching experience. Prof. Mir obtained his B. E. in Civil Engineering from REC Srinagar, M. B. A. from institute of chartered Managers, IAS academy Chennai, M. E. in Geotechnical Engg from Indian Institute of Sciences (IISc) Bangalore and Ph. D. in Geotechnical Engg from IIT Bombay, Mumbai. After brief spell of services in industry, Prof. Mir joined Regional Engineering College (now NIT) Srinagar in May 1993.