A study on bearing capacity of randomly distributed fiber-reinforced sand fills overlying soft clay

Abstract

Laboratory California Bearing Ratio (CBR) tests were performed to investigate the load–penetration behavior of sand fills reinforced with randomly distributed discrete fibers overlying soft clay. The effect of fiber reinforcement content on bearing capacity, stiffness and ductility of the fiber-reinforced sand fill–soft clay system was determined. The test results indicated that adding fiber inclusions in sand fill resulted in an appreciable increase in the peak piston load. The reinforcement benefit increased with an increase in fiber content. However, the initial stiffness of load–penetration curves was not significantly affected by fiber reinforcement. The penetration value at which the piston load was the highest tended to increase with increasing fiber reinforcement content. In addition, the test results showed that increasing fiber reinforcement content could increase the brittleness of the fiber-reinforced sand fill–soft clay system providing higher loss of post-peak strength.