Effect of Basalt Fiber Addition on Static-Dynamic Mechanical Behaviors and Microstructure of Stabilized Soil Compositing Cement and Fly Ash

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to evaluate the influence of basalt fiber content on the static-dynamic mechanical properties and microstructure of cement-fly ash-stabilized soil. The optimum mixed contents of cement and fly ash were obtained from the results of a series of physical and mechanical experiments. Based on the optimum mixed contents of cement and fly ash, the static-dynamic mechanical performances and microstructure of cement-fly ash-stabilized soil reinforced with basalt fiber were studied by means of the unconfined compression test, dynamic compression test (namely, SHPB test), and SEM test. The results demonstrated that the addition of basalt fiber in cement-fly ash-stabilized soil significantly enhanced the static-dynamic mechanical properties of stabilized soil. With basalt fiber content varying from 0% to 1.2%, the unconfined compressive strength, dynamic compressive strength, dynamic increase factor, and specific energy absorption of stabilized soil showed an upward trend first and a downward trend subsequently. The unconfined compressive strength, dynamic compressive strength, and energy absorption ability have a maximum improvement under the optimum basalt fiber content of 0.6%. In addition, the inclusion of basalt fiber can change the failure pattern of cement-fly ash-stabilized soil. The fractal dimension of broken fragments decreased gradually with the increasing basalt fiber content and increased correspondingly with the increasing impact loading pressure. With the basalt fiber content of 0.6%, a stable internal space structure produced inside stabilized soil. However, there are many fiber-fiber weak interfaces that appeared inside stabilized soil under the basalt fiber content of 1.2%. The microstructural observations can be considered as the good interpretations to verify the macroscopic mechanical characteristics.