Consolidated drained (CID) behavior of fibre reinforced cemented Toyoura sand in triaxial loading conditions

Abstract

The effects of fibre (0–3 %) and cement (0–3 %) additives, on Toyoura sand were examined under consolidated drained compression and extension loading conditions. All samples were prepared to a target dry density value (e.g., {rho }_{d}= 1.489 g/cm3) of Toyoura sand using under-compaction moist tamping technique. In compression, the unreinforced specimens exhibited a behavior of medium dense sand and reached a peak deviator stress (qp) at approximately 4 % axial strain ({epsilon }_{a}) for the varying mean effective stresses, pʹ (i.e. 50–400 kPa). The peak drained strength increases in fibre reinforced cemented specimens were found to be up to 132 % (lower effective stresses) and 243 % (higher effective stresses), while, the drained strength increases at critical state for the fibre reinforced cemented specimens were found to be up to 105 % (lower effective stresses) and 245 % (higher effective stresses). Overall, the fibre and cement additives increased the stiffness, peak and strength at critical state of pure Toyoura sand but were found to be least effective in extension loading. Moreover, the stress ratio, peak and critical state stress ratios increase with the addition of fibres and cement. The secant modulus shows limited increases for the fibre reinforced specimens. However, a significant improvement in the secant modulus is observed for the fibre reinforced cemented specimens. For both unreinforced and reinforced specimens there is a decrease in volumetric strain with greater effective stresses or in other words, the rate of dilation decreases with increases in effective stresses. The fibre and cement additives also increased the strength parameters (frictional angle, cohesion), dilatancy angle, slope of the critical state line, and decreased the state parameter of pure Toyoura sand.