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10.1680/jgein.18.00023
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 Accepted manuscript doi:
10.1680/jgein.18.00023
Submitted: 20 December 2017
Published online in ‘accepted manuscript’ format: 20 April 2018
Manuscript title: Effect of fiber reinforcement on shear strength and void ratio of soft clay
Authors: M. Mirzababaei1, A. Arulrajah2, A. Haque3, S. Nimbalkar4 and A. Mohajerani5
Affiliations: 1School of Engineering and Technology, Central Queensland University, 120
Spencer Street, Melbourne, Victoria 3000, Australia; 2Department of Civil and Construction
Engineering, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Victoria 3122, Australia;
3
Department of Civil Engineering, Monash University, Victoria 3800, Australia; 4School of
Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Technology Sydney, NSW 2007,
Australia and 5School of Engineering, RMIT, Victoria 3001, Australia
Corresponding author: Mehdi Mirzababaei, School of Engineering and Technology,
Central Queensland University, 120 Spencer Street, Melbourne, Victoria 3000, Australia.
E-mail: m.mirzababaei@cqu.edu.au

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 Accepted manuscript doi:
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Abstract

In this study, a series of multi-stage drained reverse direct shear tests were carried out on soft clay samples

reinforced with 0.25% and 0.50% polypropylene fibers of 6 mm, 10 mm and 19 mm in length. Tests were

carried out at different normal effective stresses and cumulative horizontal shear displacement of 1.17 times of

the sample dimension. Results showed an increase of the shear strength with the increase of fiber content and

length. However, the rate of improvement was capped with the normal effective stress applied during the

shearing stage. At a high normal effective stress, the shear strength of the fiber-reinforced soft clay approached

that of the unreinforced clay regardless of the amount of fiber inclusion. The rate of shear strength improvement

decayed with the number of shear cycles. Fiber reinforcement also resulted in a reduction of the compressibility

of the soft clay at consecutive consolidation and shear stages. Although the effective internal friction angle of

the soft clay was not altered significantly with the fiber reinforcement, the effective cohesion of the soft clay

improved significantly as much as 6.4 and 8.5 times with the inclusion of 0.25% and 0.50% of 10 mm long

fibers, respectively.

Keywords: Geosynthetics; fiber reinforcement; fiber length; drained shear strength; reverse direct shear test;

multi-stage test; soft clay

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 Accepted manuscript doi:
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1. Introduction

The presence of soft soils at the locations of infrastructure construction projects poses a

serious concern to civil engineers due to their low shear strength and excessive deformations.

The disposal of dredged soft soil is costly and time-consuming. Furthermore, construction of

infrastructure on soft soils may result in periodic post-construction maintenance works to

minimize the potential risk of failures. The design and construction of roads and railways

often require incorporating poor quality soils, with low bearing capacity and high moisture

susceptibility. In the coastal area, soil layers may contain soft clays and marine deposits up to

significant depths, which may affect buildings, roads and rail tracks constructed on them

(Indraratna et al. 2012). Due to the project alignment, infrastructure projects need to be

constructed on soft compressible soil deposits which often require replacement with higher

quality bearing materials or application of ground improvement technique.

Stabilization of soft soils is a preferred option in many infrastructure projects. Soil

stabilization techniques include mechanical, chemical and biological approaches to either

increase the density of the soil by compaction, reduce the post-settlement of structures

founded on soft soils using efficient drainage systems or by adding chemical or biological

additives to improve the mechanical behavior of such problematic soils. Beside the popular

chemical soil stabilization techniques using lime, cement and fly-ash (Panchal et al. 2018;

Rios et al. 2015 and 2016), geopolymerization has recently been introduced as an effective

technique to enhance the strength of weak soils (Zhang et al. 2012; Kua et al. 2017; Hoy et

al. 2017). Alumina-Silica geopolymers are products of chemical reactions between an

alkaline solution such as Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH) and aluminosilicate-rich materials that

contribute to the strength gaining process of the weak soils. The outcome of the

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 Accepted manuscript doi:
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geopolymerization process is an environmentally friendly and low-carbon stabilization of

weak soils, as compared to stabilization with Portland cement (Deng et al. 2016).

Biological soil stabilization techniques on the other hand, use microbes, enzymes and bio-

polymers for soil improvement with reduced environmental impact (Chang and Cho 2012;

Taha et al. 2013). Biopolymers can potentially increase the inter-particle cohesion of clays

leading to enhanced mechanical strength in the wet condition. However, the efficiency of

some biopolymers, such as chitosan may degrade with time and with drying (Hataf et al.

2018). Polymers and sulfonated oils have also been introduced to suppress the adverse

volumetric behavior of expansive clays by confining the soil particles to limit the water

access to clay particles, and therefore, an efficient stabilization process (Mirzababaei et al.

2009; Onyejekwe et al. 2017; Soltani et al. 2017a, b, 2018b).

Soil reinforcement techniques including the use of geosynthetics have also proven to be

effective in improving the short-term and long-term bearing capacity of shallow foundations

and reducing the post-construction settlement of foundations built on embankments (Hou et

al. 2017). Randomly distributed short fibers including natural, synthetic and waste fibers

have shown reasonably good potential for soil reinforcement applications, especially where

planar reinforcement using geosynthetics are not feasible due to space limitation such as for

the repairs of a slope veneer or in partially failed slopes (Mirzababaei et al., 2017a).

Moreover, fiber reinforcement eliminates the potential planes of possible shear failures that

can occur with planar reinforcement using geosynthetics (Yetimoglu and Salbas 2003;

Mirzababaei et al. 2013b). Studies on the application of natural fibers (i.e., coir, jute and sisal)

for the reinforcement of weak soils indicate that the mechanical behavior of the host soil

including unconfined compression strength (UCS), shear strength and California bearing ratio

(CBR) improves significantly with the addition of a small percentage of coir, jute, sisal,

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 Accepted manuscript doi:
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bamboo and palm fibers (Ghavami et al. 1999; Marandi et al. 2008; Subaida et al. 2009;

Ramesh et al. 2010; Yixian et al. 2016). Synthetics and recycled/waste fibers have also been

reported for increasing the soil strength by developing friction interlock between adjacent soil

particles. Several researchers have reported the effective contribution of short synthetic or

recycled fibers for enhancing the shear strength of granular soils (Chen and Loehr 2008; Li

and Zornberg 2013; Ajayi et al. 2017) as well as fine-grained cohesive soils (Botero et al.

2015; Festugato et al. 2013a,b; Mirmohammad Sadeghi and Hassan Beigi 2014; Nguyen and

Indraratna 2016; Mirzababaei 2013a,b,c, 2017c). In the absence of confining pressure (e.g. in

UCS test), the mode of failure of fiber-reinforced soil is predominantly due to fiber pullout

(Zhu et al. 2014). Therefore, to harness the ultimate contribution of fibers to the strength

gain mechanism, the tensile strength of fibers should be mobilized and accompanied by the

ductile behavior of the soil towards the failure (Karademir and Frost 2014). Cristelo et al.

(2015 and 2017) stated that to observe the mobilization of such tensile stresses in fibers, soil

tensile strength split tests must be utilized rather than compression strength tests. However,

although the full mobilization of the tensile strength of fibers may not occur in the UCS test,

there is a significant improvement in the peak compression strength with fiber reinforcement.

The shear strength of the fiber-reinforced sand at large shear displacement has been studied

by Heineck et al. (2005), who reported that although fiber reinforced soil did not outperform

the unreinforced sand in terms of initial stiffness, its shear strength was superior to that of the

unreinforced soil with no loss even at large shear displacements of 250 mm. Consoli et al.

(2007) reported no strength deterioration for fiber-reinforced sands at large shear

displacements in the ring shear test, but observed breakage of the fibers into shorter lengths.

To date, the behavior of fiber-reinforced clay subjected to large shear displacement has not

been well documented in the literature. Using a series of ring shear tests on fiber-reinforced

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 Accepted manuscript doi:
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bentonite, Casagrande et al. (2006) observed a constant shear strength after reaching a peak

strength at 1 mm shear displacement that was continuous to a very large shear displacement

of 50 mm, beyond which the strength decayed gradually. Mirzababaei et al. (2017b) also

investigated the effect of large shear displacement on the shear strength of fiber-reinforced

soft and stiff clays and reported the dependency of the effectiveness of fiber reinforcement of

clays on the initial void ratio and the applied normal effective stress during the shearing

stage. The fiber reinforcement technique was found to be more effective in clays with the

lower initial void ratio.

The effect of fiber aspect ratio (i.e., the ratio of fiber length to its diameter) on the

mechanical, seepage and volumetric behavior of clays has been studied by several researchers

(Al-Akhras et al. 2008; Viswanadham et al. 2009; Shahbazi et al. 2016; Estabragh et al.

2014, 2016 & 2017; Soltani et al. 2018a). Phanikumar and Singla (2016) investigated the

swell-consolidation properties of an expansive clay with dry unit weight of 12 kN/m3

reinforced with 0.05% to 0.30% fiber content and reported a reduction in swell potential and

swelling pressure of the fiber-reinforced clay with increase in fiber content up to 0.25% and a

significant reduction in the swell potential of the reinforced clay with an increase in the

length of the fibers from 15 mm to 20 mm. On the other hand Al-Akhras et al. (2008)

reported an increase in the swell pressure and swelling potential of fiber-reinforced expansive

clay with the increase in fiber aspect ratio. Recently, Soltani et al. (2018) have also

investigated the effect of fiber aspect ratio on the swelling properties of a fiber-reinforced

expansive clay and concluded that at a constant fiber content, the reduction in the aspect ratio

of tape-shaped fibers results in a better restraint of the clay’s swelling properties. The effects

of fiber content and fiber length on the UCS, CBR and shear strength of reinforced soils have

been investigated in the past and the results indicated that the shear strength of fiber-

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 Accepted manuscript doi:
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reinforced soil increases with both fiber length and fiber content up to a limiting value given

one of them is fixed (Prabakar and Siridihar 2002; Kumar et al. 2006; Marandi et al. 2008)

beyond which the strength of the fiber-reinforced soil may decay. The increase in the strength

with fiber length is due to increase in the contact area between soil grains and the fiber.

Several researchers have reported an increase in shear strength of fiber-reinforced sand with

an increase in fiber length (Consoli et al. 2009; Attom and Al-Tamimi 2010). Maher and Ho

(1994) previously concluded that increasing the length of fibers in fiber-reinforced clay

improves the strain energy of cylindrical samples for unconfined compressive strength (UCS)

test, while achieving a more ductile behavior rather than increasing the UCS value. Falorca

and Pinto (2011) also investigated the impact of fiber length on the shear strength of

compacted clay at maximum dry unit weight using direct shear test and reported an optimum

fiber length between 25 mm and 50 mm beyond which the shear strength of fiber-reinforced

clay decreases. On the other hand, Maliakal and Thiyyakkandi (2013), reported on a series of

consolidated undrained triaxial tests on fiber-reinforced clays prepared at the maximum dry

unit weight and observed a continuous increase in the major principal stress of fiber-

reinforced clay with an increase in fiber length with no optimum value. However, the effect

of fiber length on the shear strength of soft clay at large shear displacements was not studied.

In this study, the drained shear strength of soft clay with a high initial void ratio and

reinforced with 0.25% and 0.50% polypropylene fibers of 6 mm, 10 mm and 19 mm length

was investigated using a series of multistage reverse direct shear tests for large shear

displacements. The fibers were supplied by a local manufacturer in Australia and due to the

available lengths, the chosen fiber lengths covered a range of 10% to 32% of the dimension

of the shear box used in this study

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 Accepted manuscript doi:
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2. Materials

The majority of Queensland homes have been constructed on reactive clays that are

problematic in construction and require improvement (Queensland Building and Construction

Commission 2017). These soils are subject to expansion and contraction depending on

seasonal weather and site conditions. A high plastic clay was collected from a recently

constructed residential building in Sarina township located in Central Queensland of

Australia. The results of the site investigation recommended the site shall be classified as

class H according to AS2870 (2011) with a surface movement varying between 40 mm and

70 mm due to seasonal changes in moisture content. Class H sites are referred to sites with

highly reactive clays (e.g., expansive clays), which may experience high ground movement

due to moisture changes. Table 1 shows the geotechnical properties of the clay. Two

modified Proctor compaction tests were carried out on unreinforced and 0.50% fiber-

reinforced clay with 19 mm long fibers and the results showed that the optimum moisture

content and maximum dry unit weight of the unreinforced and 0.50% fiber-reinforced clays

are almost similar (See Figure 1). Commercially available short virgin polypropylene

monofilament fibers with different lengths of 6 mm (diameter of 18 m), 10 mm (diameter of

32 m) and 19 mm (diameter of 32 m) were supplied by a supplier in the state of New

South Wales of Australia. Figure 2 shows the fibers used in this study. The physical and

technical characteristics of the fibers used in this study are listed in Table 2.

3. Experimental Program

Drained multiple reverse direct shear test and drained ring shear test are tests that have been

extensively utilized to evaluate the shear strength of clays at large shear displacements (Stark

and Eid 1994; Mesri and Huvaj 2012). The shear behaviour of soils at large shear

displacements can be investigated either using ring shear test or reverse direct shear test. In

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 Accepted manuscript doi:
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the drained ring shear test, a thin annular soil specimen is sheared slowly and continuously by

rotation in one direction with no change in the cross-sectional area of the shear surface during

the shear. In the reverse drained direct shear test, a prismatic soil specimen is sheared in

several cycles of forward and backward cycles at a relatively slow speed to reach a constant

residual state.

In this study, multistage reverse direct shear tests were carried out on unreinforced and fiber-

reinforced clay samples (i.e., with 0.25% and 0.50% fiber contents) at normal effective

stresses of 50 kPa, 100 kPa and 200 kPa in 4 reverse cycles of ±7 mm, ±7 mm, ±7 mm and

±14 mm at each normal effective stress following the general recommendations outlined in

AS 1289.6.2.1 (2001). Multi-stage direct shear tests allow the preservation of fiber

distribution, leading to conclusions based on homogeneous test results. All direct shear tests

were carried out at the horizontal forward displacement rate of 0.01 mm/min in accordance

with the previous study (Mirzababaei et al. 2017b) to ensure fully drained condition during

shearing. During the consolidation stage, the test was lagged until the primary consolidation

of the clay was achieved that was slightly more than 24 hours. Table 3 shows the details of

the testing program. Clay samples were remolded at the dry unit weight of 10.8 kN/m3 and

initial water content of 48% (i.e., the initial void ratio of 1.46) to resemble the behavior of a

soft clay. Prismatic clay specimen with 60 mm  60 mm plan dimensions were prepared

using the static compaction and the samples were molded directly in the shear box. For fiber-

reinforced samples, the desired amount of soil, water and fiber for each sample was divided

into five equal parts as explained in an earlier study by Mirzababaei et al. (2017b). To attain a

uniform sample, each part was mixed manually until a homogenous mixture of moist soil and

fiber was achieved and afterwards, it was included in the shear box and compacted using a

strain-controlled loading frame at an axial displacement rate of 0.50 mm/min to achieve the

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 Accepted manuscript doi:
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desired unit weight. The amount of compression was carefully monitored until the desired

thickness was achieved.

4. Effect of fiber content on the shear strength of soft clay

Figure 3 shows the shear strength response of unreinforced soft clay compacted at the dry

unit weight of 10.8 kN/m3 when subjected to 4 reverse cycles of shear displacement. The

shear strength of the unreinforced soft clay increased with each reverse shear cycle while

ultimately reaching a residual state with constant shear strength after four cycles. Figure 4

compares the shear strength ratio of the reinforced soft clay with 6 mm long fibers. The shear

strength ratio was defined as the ratio of the shear strength of the fiber-reinforced clay to that

of the unreinforced clay at the fourth cycle (τ/τun). The shear strength ratio of the soft clay

improved significantly with an increase in the fiber content. Interestingly, the shear strength

of the reinforced clay with 0.25% and 0.50% fiber was 1.69 and 1.75 times that of the

unreinforced clay at the normal effective stress of 50 kPa, respectively. However, the rate of

shear strength improvement decreased with the increase in normal effective stress. For

example, the shear strength ratio of 0.25% and 0.50% fiber-reinforced clay reached 1.0 and

1.1 at the normal effective stress of 200 kPa, respectively. Previous research has also

indicated an inverse relationship between the shear strength improvement of fiber-reinforced

soil and the normal effective stress (Mirzababaei et al. 2017b; Anagnostopoulos et al. 2014;

Falorca et al. 2011). The mechanism of shear strength improvement in dilating soils, with the

inclusion of short fibers is dependent on the level of interaction between soil particles and

fibers as well as the amount of dilation during the shear stage that mobilizes the tensile

strength of fibers (Falorca et al. 2006). Dilatancy is the outcome of shear zone enlargement

during the mobilization of the reinforcing elements (Benson and Khire 1994). Increase in the

normal stress bounds the re-arrangement of the soil matrix resulting in less dilation and this

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 Accepted manuscript doi:
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restricts the amount of fiber stretch during the shear (Anagnostopoulos et al. 2013).

Therefore, the performance of fiber reinforcement to increase the shear strength of the

dilating soil is evidently affected by an increase in the normal stress. In non-dilating soils,

compression due to the increase in normal stress displaces some or a majority of fibers out of

the shear plane which results in achieving a shear strength close to that of the unreinforced

soil subjected to the same normal effective stress. Figure 5 shows the progress of shear

strength ratio of unreinforced and fiber-reinforced soil with 0.25% of 6 mm fibers at different

shear cycles of reverse direct shear test to forward horizontal displacement of 25.2 mm. It is

clearly shown that although the shear strength ratio of fiber-reinforced clay tested at the

normal effective stress of 50 kPa is higher than that of the successive normal effective

stresses, this ratio declines quickly when continuing the shear test to large shear

displacements. Mirzababaei et al. (2017b) reported on a series of reverse direct shear tests on

both stiff and soft fiber-reinforced clay samples and concluded that the outcome of fiber

reinforcement technique is conditionally appropriate where it is applied in soils with low to

medium overburden stress range, such as for improving the shear strength of base layer in

road construction. It also evident that the shear strength ratio of fiber-reinforced soil at the

normal effective stress of 200 kPa approached that of unreinforced soil and it may be

concluded that fibers do not contribute well to increase the shear strength of the soft clay at

high normal effective stresses regardless of the fiber content.

5. Effect of fiber length on the shear strength of soft clay

In this study, the shear strength of fiber-reinforced soft clay with different fiber lengths of 6

mm, 10 mm and 19 mm corresponding to 20% to 65% of the sample width prepared at the

wet side of the optimum with high moisture content of 48% and low initial dry unit weight of

10.8 kN/m3 was investigated. Figure 6 shows the shear strength ratio of the fiber reinforced

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 Accepted manuscript doi:
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soft clay with different lengths of fibers. Figure 6a demonstrates that the shear strength ratio

of the reinforced soft clay with 0.25% fiber content increased with length of the fiber.

Although the shear strength ratio of reinforced soft clay with 19 mm fiber was greater than

that of reinforced with 6 mm fiber, the optimum shear strength ratio was achieved with 10

mm fiber for the lower fiber content of 0.25%. By doubling the fiber content to 0.50% (see

Figure 6b), fiber-reinforced sample with 10 mm fibers also showed the highest shear strength

ratio. However, the performance of 19 mm fibers was slightly reduced with the increase in

normal effective stress. Previous studies show that the shear strength of fiber-reinforced clay

is proportional to the fiber content up to a limiting value (Falorca et al. 2011;

Anagnostopoulos et al. 2013). At a constant fiber content, the number of fibers propagated in

the soil-fiber matrix is inversely proportional to the length of fibers that results in less number

of fibers with the increase in fiber length. On the other hand, longer fibers would warrant a

higher frictional force through their skin friction while dragging against the soil particles in

shear. Therefore, the level of improvement in the shear strength of a soil due to fiber

reinforcement is a function of both fiber content and fiber length. Based on the partial

debonding theory (Hseuh and Becher 1993), the total strain required for partially debonding a

fiber from the soil matrix (i.e., mobilizing the tensile strength of the fiber) is a function of the

frictional length of the fiber (i.e., already debonded) and the frictionless length of the fiber

(i.e., already bonded) (Bannister et al. 1995). According to the short fiber composite theory,

the soft matrix inserts tangential stresses on the fibers and reaches a maximum value at the

incipient of slippage when the fiber is fully debonded from the soil matrix (Cox et al. 1952).

Therefore, the failure mechanism of the fiber-reinforced soil and the partial fiber debonding

from the soil matrix is controlled by the interfacial frictional shear stress and the amount of

normal stress on the soil-fiber interface. The failure mechanism of a fiber-reinforced clay

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 Accepted manuscript doi:
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with a high moisture content (i.e., soft clay) subjected to a planar shear stress is through the

fiber elongation (i.e., partial debonding) and/or fiber slippage (i.e., full debonding) depending

on the level of confining stress on the soil-fiber interface. At a low normal stress, fibers tend

to slip while at a high normal stress, fibers may elongate until fiber breakage depending on

the applied shear displacement. Once the fiber is debonded from the matrix, its contribution

to the strength of the matrix partially remains through its skin friction.

In the current study, due to the amount of shear displacement in one direction (i.e., lowest of

7 mm and highest of 14 mm), short fibers of 6 mm and 10 mm long are expected to

experience both slippage and elongation, while 19 mm fibers may not be fully stretched to

mobilize their tensile strength. Therefore, with the imposed maximum shear displacement of

14 mm, the shear strength of the fiber-reinforced clay will increase with the inclusion of 6

mm and 10 mm length fibers followed by a reduction for 19 mm length fibers.

In the multi-stage reverse direct shear test, the bonding at the interface of soil-fiber develops

during the consolidation stage and deteriorates once the shear stage commences. As the fiber

strain is increased in one direction, debonding occurs until the fiber is fully detached from the

soil matrix. However, once the reverse shear takes place, debonded fibers are displaced

horizontally in the soil matrix without any tensile strength mobilization and their contribution

to resisting shear displacements is through skin friction only until they are stretched again.

6. Effect of fiber reinforcement on the void ratio change of soft clay

Figure 7 shows the change in the relative void ratio of fiber-reinforced clay by the multistage

reverse direct shear tests for all consolidation and shear test stages. The relative void ratio

was defined as the ratio of the void ratio of the soil sample during consolidation/shear stage

to that of the soil before commencing the test (e/e0). Figure 7a shows that the addition of

0.25% fiber reduced the compressibility of the soft clay significantly during consecutive

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 Accepted manuscript doi:
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consolidation and shear stages. The void ratio of the unreinforced soft clay after several

stages of consolidation and reverse shear cycles reduced to 62% of its initial void ratio before

commencing the test. However, the void ratio values of the 0.25% fiber-reinforced soft clay

with 6 mm, 10 mm and 19 mm fibers at the end of the last shear cycle remained between

68%~74% of their initial void ratio values. Increasing the fiber content to 0.50% also resulted

in limiting the soil compression in consolidation and shear stages (Figure 7b).

In this study, the reinforced clay with 10 mm long fibers manifested the largest change in

relative void ratio compared to 6 mm and 19 mm long fibers for both fiber contents. In fiber-

reinforced soft clay, reduction in the void ratio of the soil is in accordance with the enhanced

interlocking and friction between soil particles and fibers along with a lower water content at

the interface between the fibers and the soil particles. Therefore, with introduction of fibers

into the soil medium the enhanced interlocking between fibers and soil particles contribute to

the shear strength of the soil. This was also compatible with the shear strength ratio

improvement shown in Figure 6.

7. Effect of fiber reinforcement on the drained shear strength parameters of the soft

clay

Figure 8 shows the Mohr-Coulomb failure envelope for both unreinforced and fiber-

reinforced soft clay. Table 4 presents the drained shear strength parameters including

cohesion intercept and internal friction angle (i.e., ) of the unreinforced and fiber-

reinforced clay. The effective internal friction angle of the soft clay was not changed

significantly with fiber reinforcement. However, the effective cohesion of the soft clay

increased significantly with both increased fiber content and fiber length. The ratio of the

effective cohesion of the fiber-reinforced soft clay to that of the unreinforced clay was varied

between 4.7 and 8.5 depending on the fiber content and fiber length. The inclusion of 0.25%

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 Accepted manuscript doi:
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and 0.50% of 10 mm long fibers resulted in 6.4 times and 8.5 times improvement,

respectively in effective cohesion intercept of the unreinforced clay. In soft clays with a non-

dilating behavior, the friction between fibers’ surfaces and the clay particles may not be

adequately improved with increasing the fiber content or fiber length due to the excessive

water content near saturation along the fibers that may result in less improvement in internal

friction angle of the soft clay with fiber reinforcement. The mechanism of fiber reinforcement

in soft clay is through the contribution of the tensile strength of the fiber and the adhesion of

the fibers with clay particles resulting in increased cohesion intercept of the soil.

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 Accepted manuscript doi:
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8. Conclusions

In this study, the shear strength behavior of a soft clay reinforced with fibers of different

lengths was studied using a series of multi-stage reverse direct shear tests. The unreinforced

and fiber-reinforced soft clay samples were compacted at the dry unit weight of 10.8 kN/m3

and a moisture content of 48%, to resemble a clay with high initial void ratio. The following

conclusions can be made based on the undertaken experimental study.

1) Although the shear strength of the reinforced soft clay increases with fiber content,

the rate of improvement is capped with normal effective stress applied during the

shear stage. At high normal effective stresses, the effect of fiber reinforcement

becomes negligible regardless of the amount of fiber inclusion. At a normal effective

stress of 200 kPa only a negligible surplus shear strength was recorded with the

inclusion of fibers. The rate of shear strength improvement of the soft clay at a low

normal effective stress of 50 kPa that is equivalent to the stress experienced in low to

medium traffic pavement layers was 68% and 75% with the addition of 0.25% and

0.50% fibers, respectively.

2) Based on the direct shear test results, it seems that the addition of 0.25% fibers is

more effective while secures very close rate of improvement with the addition of

0.50% fibers.

3) The rate of shear strength improvement decayed with a number of shear cycles. The

rate of shear strength drop was more evident at a low normal effective stress of 50

kPa.

4) In this study, the shear strength of the fiber-reinforced soft clay increased with the

fiber length with an optimum determined for 10 mm long fibers. Fiber reinforcement

resulted in a reduction of the compressibility of the soft clay at consecutive

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 Accepted manuscript doi:
10.1680/jgein.18.00023
consolidation and shear stages. Fiber-reinforced soft clay with 10 mm long fibers

manifested the largest change in relative void ratio compared to fibers with 6 mm and

19 mm in length.

5) Reduction in the void ratio of the fiber-reinforced soft clay is in accordance with the

enhanced interlock and friction between soil particles and fibers and a lower water

content at the interface between the fibers and the soil particles that results in

improved shear strength. However, the shear strength gain diminishes with the

increase in normal effective stress and the shear strength of the fiber-reinforced clay

approaches that of the unreinforced clay at higher normal effective stresses.

6) The effective cohesion intercept of the soft clay increased significantly with both

increased fiber content and fiber length.

Notation list

Basic SI units are shown in parentheses.

Void ratio of the clay sample during shear/consolidation stage
(dimensionless)
Initial void ratio of the clay sample (dimensionless)
Effective drained cohesion intercept of the soil (Pa)
Effective drained internal friction angle of the soil (degrees)
Maximum dry unit weight of the soil (N/m3)
Dry unit weight of the soil (N/m3)
Moisture content of the soil (dimensionless)
Optimum moisture content of the soil (dimensionless)
Cc Primary compression index of the soil (dimensionless)
Cs Swell index of the soil (dimensionless)

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 Accepted manuscript doi:
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Table 1 Soil properties

Soil Classification CH ASTM D2487-11 (USCS)

Specific gravity Gs 2.71 ASTM D854-14
Activity 0.50
Grain size analysis Sand (%) 3.60
Silt (%) 3.10 AS 1289.3.6.1
Clay (%) 93.30
Atterberg limits Liquid limit WL (%) 74.00 AS 1289.3.9.1
Plasticity index IP 47.00
Compaction characteristics Maximum dry unit weight (kN/m3) 16.20
AS 1289.5.2.1
Optimum moisture content (%) 16.80

Swelling properties at Swelling pressure (kPa) 218.50

ASTM D4546-14

Effective shear strength Cohesion (kPa) 6.00

parameters (plane strain test) Friction angle (degree) 28.60 AS 1289.6.2.2

Consolidation properties Compression Index (Cc) 0.51

Swell index (Cs) 0.07 AS 1289.6.6.1

Table 2 Physical and technical characteristics of fibers used in this study

Commercial Name Fiber A Fiber B

Form Monofilament fiber
Material 100% virgin homopolymer polypropylene
Length (mm) 19, 10 6
Diameter (µm) 32 18
Fiber count (/kg) x106 32 720
Specific gravity 0.91
Tensile strength (MPa) 600

Table 3 Details of the testing program

Fiber length Fiber Normal effective Number of reverse

(mm) content stress (kPa) shear displacement
(%) (mm) cycles
0 (unreinforced) - 50, 100, 200 4 (±7 mm, ±7 mm, ±7
mm and ±14)
6 0.25, 0.50 50, 100, 200 4 (±7 mm, ±7 mm, ±7
mm and ±14)
10 0.25, 0.50 50, 100, 200 4 (±7 mm, ±7 mm, ±7
mm and ±14)
19 0.25, 0.50 50, 100, 200 4 (±7 mm, ±7 mm, ±7
mm and ±14)

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Table 4 Effective shear strength parameters of the fiber-reinforced soft clay

Fiber content Fiber length Effective cohesion Effective internal

(%) (mm) ( ) friction angle ( )
0.00 - 6.1 25.0
0.25 6 33.0 22.0
0.25 5 38.8 26.7
0.25 19 28.7 26.9
0.50 6 43.0 25.7
0.50 10 51.9 22.1
0.50 19 41.1 24.1

List of Figures

Figure 1. Modified Proctor compaction curves of unreinforced and 0.50% fiber-reinforced

clay (19 mm fibers)

Figure 2. Fibers used in this study

Figure 3. Shear strength of unreinforced soft clay

Figure 4. Drained shear strength ratio of reinforced soft clay with 6 mm long fibers at 4th

shear cycle (25.2 mm horizontal displacement) and normal effective stresses of a) 50

kPa, b) 100 kPa and c) 200 kPa

Figure 5. Shear strength ratio of reinforced soft clay (0.25% 6 mm long fibers) at different

shear cycles of reversal direct shear test

Figure 6. Drained shear strength ratio of reinforced soft clay with different fiber lengths a)

0.25% fiber and b) 0.50% fiber

Figure 7. The relationship between relative void ratio and fiber length of reinforced soft clay

a) 0.25% fiber and b) 0.50% fiber

C: Consolidation stage Sn: Shear cycle n

Figure 8. Mohr-Coulomb failure envelope for unreinforced and fiber-reinforced soft clay

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