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Experimental study on ring shear properties of fiber-reinforced loess

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Abstract

With poor mechanical properties and engineering characteristics, loess soils alone cannot meet the requirements of high-speed railway subgrade and large-sized building foundations based on shear strength and bearing capacity. Therefore, it is necessary to improve the mechanical properties of loess. In soil reinforcement, encouraging outcomes have been achieved by using fibers as reinforcement material for its relatively low costs and the low environment impact results from this material. To investigate the mechanical properties and the reinforcement mechanism of fiber-reinforced loess, ring shear tests were performed on loess samples with varying polypropylene fiber contents (0%, 0.25%, 0.50%, 0.75%, and 1%) and moisture contents (12%, 14%, 16%, 18%, and 20%). Furthermore, the macroscopic structure and microscopic images of the shear plane of reinforced specimens were analyzed as well. The test results showed that firstly polypropylene fibers significantly improved the peak strength and the residual strength of loess, and the optimal fiber content and the optimal moisture content were found to be 0.5% and 16%, respectively. The theoretical relationships between the fiber content Fc, the moisture content Mc, the peak strength τ, and the residual strength τr of reinforced loess were quantitatively determined. In addition, the fiber reinforcement mechanism was revealed based on the macroscopic shear plane of fiber-reinforced loess and SEM microscopic images of the shear plane.

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Acknowledgements

The National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41902268) and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2019T120871) are gratefully acknowledged. We thank Editor Professor Resat and two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments which helped us improve the quality of the manuscript.

Data availability statement

All data included in this study are available upon request by contact with the corresponding author.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Continental Dynamics, Department of Geology, Northwest University, Xi’an, 710069, China

    Xingang Wang, Kai Liu & Baoqin Lian

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  1. Xingang Wang
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  2. Kai Liu
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  3. Baoqin Lian
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Contributions

Xingang Wang initiated and supervised this project, Baoqin Lian and Kai Liu designed and performed the experiment. Kai Liu and Baoqin Lian drafted the article and interpreted the results. Kai Liu revised the manuscript. All authors discussed the results and contributed to the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Kai Liu or Baoqin Lian.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Wang, X., Liu, K. & Lian, B. Experimental study on ring shear properties of fiber-reinforced loess. Bull Eng Geol Environ 80, 5021–5029 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10064-021-02243-0

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