Study on the Tensile Properties and Application of Gravelly Soil Reinforced by Polypropylene Fiber

Abstract

Incorporating fibers into gravelly soil is an effective method to prevent the core wall of high earth core rockfill dams (ECRDS) from cracking. In this study, a new type of soil tensile device was used to carry out tensile tests on gravelly soil with different gravel contents and fiber contents. The test results show that as the gravel content increases from 0% to 50%, the improvement in tensile strength decreases from 48.9% to 6.4%, which means the increase in gravel content reduces the improvement in tensile strength significantly. The ultimate tensile strain, tensile strength, and post-peak tensile strength of fiber-reinforced gravelly soil are positively correlated with the fiber content. Combined with the Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) results, the reinforcement effect of the three types of fiber interfaces on the gravel soil is qualitatively analyzed, and the microscopic mechanism of the improvement of the tensile strength of fiber-reinforced gravelly soil is revealed. The energy absorption capacity (EAC) results showed that the lower the gravel content in the soil, the higher the degree of improvement in the EAC value. In practical application, it is recommended to use gravel soil with low gravel content and high fiber content. Finally, a regression model considering the gravel content and fiber content was proposed for fast predicting the tensile strength of the soil. The related results can provide references for the anti-cracking design of the core wall of high ECRDS.