Numerical shear test on reinforced clayey sand

Abstract

Composite soils have been widely used in civil engineering applications, especially in slopes, embankment dam and landfills. This paper aims to investigate effect of fiber inclusion on shear stress of composite soil (i.e. sand composite). A series of laboratory direct shear tests carried out to evaluate fiber effect on strength behavior of composite sand. One of the most respective model of behavior prediction clayey sand (Michalowski model) was verified. Natural fiber was used as reinforcement in this verification. The fiber parameters differed from one test to another, as fiber length were changed from 10 mm to 35 mm and fiber content were varied from 0.6% and 3%. Normal stress kept constant at 100 kPa. For each test, stress_ displacement graph derived and the results were compared. The results proved that inclusion of fiber affected strength behavior of sand composite so that increasing in fiber content and length caused increasing in shear stress and Michalowski model showed good agreement with the lab results.