Dosage method for unconfined strength and fatigue life of fiber-reinforced cement-treated sand

Abstract

Fiber-reinforcement has been reported as an effective and cost-attractive technique to improve the mechanical behavior of cemented soils. However, the dosage methodologies for these mixtures are still limited, especially regarding dynamic loading. The objective of this research was to analyze the dynamic response and strength behavior of fiber-reinforced cement-treated sand. In this sense, fatigue life, unconfined compressive strength, and split tensile strength tests were conducted. Results indicated that the mechanical behavior of the soil-cement mixtures was governed by fiber content, cement content and void ratio. The presence of fibers, the increase in cement content and the decrease in void ratio improved the overall mechanical behavior of all specimens. The porosity/cement content index resulted in a viable dosage method to predict both the monotonic and cyclic behavior of the mixtures. Lastly, the statistical analysis of variance corroborated the experimentally observed findings.