Abstract
Compared with plain soil, polypropylene (PP) fiber-reinforced soil has markedly improved mechanical properties and can be used in slope protection projects. To investigate the reduction law of the antierosion ability parameters of PP fiber-reinforced loess under dry-wet (D-W) cycles and freeze-thaw (F-T) cycles, we took loess from Yan’an, China, mixed them with PP fiber, and did shear strength tests, disintegration tests, and permeability tests under D-W cycles and F-T cycles. The experimental results show that D-W cycles or F-T cycles had a less deteriorating effect on the cohesion, disintegration rate, and permeability coefficient of the fiber-reinforced samples than on plain loess; however, the reduction in their internal friction angle was more obvious. Under D-W cycles or F-T cycles, the cohesion and internal friction angle of the reinforced soil decreased as the number of cycles increased, while the disintegration rate and permeability coefficient increased as the number of cycles increased. The relation between the reduction in the antierosion ability parameters of reinforced soil and the number of D-W cycles or F-T cycles accorded with the hyperbolic function fitting results. The most obvious reduction effect the D-W cycles had on the reinforced soil was on the disintegration rate, followed by cohesion, internal friction angle, and permeability coefficient. The most obvious effect of F-T cycles was also on the disintegration rate, followed by cohesion, permeability coefficient, and internal friction angle. Compared with D-W cycles, F-T cycles had a stronger effect on the reduction in the cohesion, disintegration rate, and permeability coefficient of reinforced soil, but the reduction in the friction angle was greater in D-W cycles.
Highlights
Loess is widely distributed in the middle and western regions of China [1, 2]
Jiang et al [18] reported that PP fiber-reinforced clayey soil had a Advances in Materials Science and Engineering greater unconfined compressive strength and greater cohesion and internal friction angles than those of the parent soil. ey found that the best fiber content was 0.3 wt% of the parent soil and the best fiber length was 15 mm
On the basis of a triaxial compression test and a dynamic triaxial test, Kravchenko et al [37, 38] concluded that the shear strength, the resilient modulus, the dynamic axial stress, the dynamic shear modulus, and the damping ratio of PP fiber-reinforced soil all decreased with an increase in the number of F-T cycles
Summary
Loess is widely distributed in the middle and western regions of China [1, 2]. In recent years, an increasing number of engineering construction projects have been done in the Loess Plateau, such as road construction and urban expansion. ose projects inevitably produce many steep loess slopes [3, 4]. Zaimoglu [35] did a series of tests to study the effect of F-T cycles on the strength characteristics and durability of PP fiber-reinforced finegrained soil. E research results of Ghazavi et al [36] indicated that after F-T cycles, adding fibers increased the unconfined compressive strength of the soil and reduced its frost heaving. On the basis of a triaxial compression test and a dynamic triaxial test, Kravchenko et al [37, 38] concluded that the shear strength, the resilient modulus, the dynamic axial stress, the dynamic shear modulus, and the damping ratio of PP fiber-reinforced soil all decreased with an increase in the number of F-T cycles. If PP fiber-reinforced loess is to be applied to protect a loess slope, it is important to study the antierosion ability of the reinforced soil in those conditions. On the basis of the test results, we formulated a reduction law of the antierosion ability parameters of PP fiber-reinforced loess in those conditions
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