Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Strength Behavior of Shanghai Clayey Soil Reinforced with Wheat Straw Fibers

  • Original paper
  • Published:
Geotechnical and Geological Engineering Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

It is generally recognized that the low strength and high compressibility are the characteristics of soft soil. In addition to other techniques, reinforcement can also be used in increasing the strength and decreasing the deformation of this kind of soil. The results of an investigation into the effects of a natural fiber on the consolidation and shear strength behavior of Shanghai clayey soil reinforced with wheat straw fibers are presented in this paper. A series of one dimensional consolidation and triaxial tests were conducted on samples of unreinforced and reinforced Shanghai clayey soil with different percentages of randomly distributed wheat straw fibers. The results show that the preconsolidation pressure decreases and the coefficient of swelling and compression generally increase with increasing the fiber content until a optimum content value. Furthermore, the addition of wheat straw fiber leads to a significant increase in shear strength and friction angle of the natural soil and there is an optimum wheat fiber content that makes this increase maximal.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Ahmad F, Bateni F, Azmi M (2010) Performance evaluation of silty sand reinforced with fibers. Geotext Geomembr 28:93–99

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Al-Rafeai TO (1991) Behavior of granular soils reinforced with discrete randomly oriented inclusions. Geotext Geomembr 10:319–333

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Andersland OB, Khattak AS (1979) Shear strength of kaolinite/fiber soil mixtures. In: Proceedings of international conference on soil reinforcement, vol 1. Paris, France, pp 11–16

  • Attom MF, Al-Akhras NM, Malkawi AIH (2009) Effect of fibers on the mechanical properties of clayey soil. In: Proceedings of the institute of civil engineers, geotechnical engineering, vol 162(GES), pp 277–282

  • Bishop AW, Henkel DJ (1969) The measurement of soil properties in the triaxial test. William Clowes and Sons limited, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Bowles JE (1987) Foundation analysis and design. McGraw Hill International Book Company, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Consoli NC, Montardo JP, Prietto PDM, Pasa GS (2002) Engineering behavior of a sand reinforced with plastic waste. J Geotech Geoenviron Eng ASCE 128(6):462–472

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Consoli NC, Vendruscolo MA, Fonini A, Dalla Rosa F (2009) Fiber reinforcement effects on sand considering a wide cementation range. Geotext Geomembr 27:196–203

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cui YJ, Delage P (1996) Yielding and plastic behavior of an unsaturated compacted silt. Géotechnique 46(2):291–331

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Estabragh AR, Bordbar AT, Javadi AA (2011) Mechanical behavior of a clay soil reinforced with Nylon Fibers. Geotech Geol Eng 29:899–908

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Freed WW (1990) Innovative method of stabilizing clay utilized on centre development project. Texas Contractor, pp 12–14

  • Freitag DR (1986) Soil randomly reinforced with fibers. J Geotech Eng ASCE 112(8):823–826

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fukue M, Okusa S, Nakamura, T (1986) Consolidation of sand-clay mixtures. Consolidation of soils: testing and evolution ASTM STP892, pp 627–641

  • Gray DH, Maher MH (1982) Admixture stabilization of sand with discrete randomly distributed fibers. In: Proceeding of the XIIth international conference on soil mechanics and foundation engineering. Riode Janeiro, Brazil, vol 1, pp 1363–1366

  • Gray DH, Ohashi H (1983) Mechanics of fiber reinforcement in sand. J Geotecl Eng ASCE 109(3):335–353

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grogan WP, Johnson WG (1994) Stabilization of high plasticity clay and silty sand by inclusion of discrete fibrillated polypropylene fibers for use in pavement subgrades. Rep. No. CPAR-GL-94-2, US Army Corpse of Engineers, Waterways Experiment Station

  • Haeri SM, Noorzad RN, Oskoorouchi AM (2000) Effect of geotextile reinforcement on the mechanical behavior of sand. Geotext Geomembr 18:385–402

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Head KH (1986) Manual of soil laboratory testing. Pentech Press, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Jiang H, Cai Y, Liu J (2010) Engineering properties of soils reinforced by short discrete polypropylene fiber. J Mater Civil Eng ASCE 22(12):1315

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kumar S, Tabor E (2003) Strength characteristics of silty clay reinforced with randomly oriented nylon fiber. Electron J, Geotech Eng 8

    Google Scholar 

  • Kumar GV, Wood DM (1999) Fall cone and compression tests on clay-gravel. Géotechnique 49(6):727–739

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kumar A, Walia BS, Bajaj A (2006) Compressive strength of fiber reinforced highly compressible clay. J Constr Build Mater 20:1063–1068

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leelanitkul S (1989) Improving properties of active clay by sand admixtures. In: Proceedings of foundation engineering: current principles and practices conference, ASCE. New York, USA, pp 381–391

  • Li C (2005) Mechanical response of Fiber-Reinforced soil. Ph.D. Dissertation, The University of Texas at Austin, USA

  • Li M, Chai SX, Du HP, Wei L (2011) Deviator stress–strain characters of reinforced lime-soil with wheat straw and parameters of Duncan–Chang model. J Hebei Univ Tech 40(1):87–92

    Google Scholar 

  • Maher MH (1988) Static and dynamic response of sands reinforced with discrete randomly distributed fibers. Ph.D. thesis, University of Michigan, USA

  • Maher MH, Gray DH (1990) Static response of sand reinforced with randomly distributed fibers. J Geotech Eng ASCE 116(11):1661–1677

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maher MH, Ho YC (1994) Mechanical properties of kaolinite/fiber soil composition. J Geotech Eng ASCE 120(8):1381–1393

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marto A (1996) Volumetric compression of a silt under periodic loading. Ph.D. thesis, University of Bradford, Bradford, UK

  • Mesbah A, Morel JC, Walker P, Ghavami Kh (2004) Development of a direct tensile test for compacted earth blocks reinforced with natural fibers. J Mater Civil Eng ASCE 16:95–98

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Peters JF, Ernest S, Bovney IV (2010) Percolation threshold of sand-clay binary mixtures. J Geotech Geoenviron Eng ASCE 136(2):310–318

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ranjan G, Vasan RM, Charan HD (1996) Probalilistic analysis of randomly distributed fiber-reinforced soil. J Geotech Eng ASCE 122(6):419–428

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith GN, Smith IGN (1990) Elements of soil mechanics. Blackwell Science Inc., Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Tan TS, GohTC Karunaratne GP, Lee SL (1994) Shear strength of very soft clay-sand mixtures. Geotech Test J 17(1):27–34

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tang C, Shi B, Gao W, Chen F, Cai Y (2007) Strength and mechanical behavior of short polypropylene-fiber reinforced and cement stabilized clayey soil. Geotext Geomembr 25:194–202

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vallejo LE, Mawby R (2000) Porosity influence on the shear strength of granular material-clay mixtures. Eng Geol 58:125–136

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang P, Chai SX, Wang XY, Wei L, Li M (2011) Analysis of effect factors of heavy compaction test for wheat straw-reinforced saline soil. Rock Soil Mech 32(2):448–452

    Google Scholar 

  • Wei HW, Yu ZH, Zou YS (2005) Shear characteristics of soil reinforced with geosynthetic material. Shuili Xuebao 36(5):1–11

    Google Scholar 

  • Wei L, Chai SX, Cai HZ, Wang XY, Li M, Yang JW (2010) Physical and mechanical properties of wheat straw and unconfined compressive strength of inshore saline soil reinforced with wheat straw. CHN Civil Eng J 43(3):93–98

    Google Scholar 

  • Wood DM, Kumar GV (2000) Experimental observations of behaviour of heterogeneous soils. Mech Cohes Frict Mater 5:373–398

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yetimoglu T, Salbas O (2003) A study on shear strength of sands reinforced with randomly distributed fiber. Geotext Geomembr 21:103–110

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yu P, Chai SX, Wang XY, Zhang WB, Wei L (2010) Reinforcement effects and engineering application of coast salinized soil reinforced with wheat straw. J Tianjin Inst Urban Cons 16(3):161–166

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhang MX, Javadi AA, Min V (2006) Triaxial tests of sand reinforced with 3D inclusions. Geotext Geomembr 24:201–209

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Environmental and Architectural College, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, 516 Jungong Rd, Shanghai, 200093, People’s Republic of China

    Jili Qu & Zhongming Sun

Authors
  1. Jili Qu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Zhongming Sun
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jili Qu.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Qu, J., Sun, Z. Strength Behavior of Shanghai Clayey Soil Reinforced with Wheat Straw Fibers. Geotech Geol Eng 34, 515–527 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10706-015-9963-8

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10706-015-9963-8

Keywords

Search

Navigation