DefinePK

Abstract

Fine soil improvement through the inclusion of randomly distributed discrete elements, such as fibers, has recently attracted more attention in the geotechnical engineering community. Consequently, the purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of soil compaction conditions on the shear strength and volume change of elastic silts reinforced with glass fiber experimentally. A series of unconfined compressive strength and free swell tests were conducted on unreinforced and reinforced elastic silts specimens. The fiber content in the tests varied between 0.25% and 1.0% by weight of dry soil. The test results revealed that the inclusion of fibers in soil significantly increases the unconfined compressive strength. Furthermore, little inclusions of the fibers were able to eradicate the undesired volume change occur during wetting of elastic silts and partially eliminate the dependent of soil strength on seasonal water variation which is extremely important for subgrade soil.