Behavior of Fiber-Reinforced Cemented Sand Under Static and Cyclic Loads

Triaxial static compression, cyclic compression, and splitting tension tests were performed to evaluate the effect of randomly distributed fiber reinforcement on the response of cemented sand to load. Test results indicated that fiber reinforcement significantly increases the compressive and splitting tensile strength of cemented sand. An increase in the compressive and tensile strength was found to be more pronounced at higher fiber contents and longer fiber lengths. Peak strength envelopes in compression indicated that both the friction angle and cohesion intercept of cemented sand were increased as a result of fiber inclusion. Inclusion of fibers also contributed to increased brittleness index of cemented sand while increasing its total energy absorption capacity. Fiber reinforcement also affected the response of cemented sand to cyclic load by significantly increasing the number of cycles, and the magnitude of cyclic strain needed to reach failure.