Water-induced changes in strength characteristics of polyurethane polymer and polypropylene fiber reinforced sand

As a new kind of air-hardening soil reinforcement material,polymer is being widely applied in river-bank slope reinforcement and ecological slope protection area.Thus,more attention should be paid to study the characteristics of reinforced soil after immersion.In this study,water-induced changes in strength characteristics of sand reinforced with polymer and fibers were reported.Several factors,including polymer content(1%,2%,3%and 4%by weight of dry sand),immersion time(6,12,24 and 48 h),dry density(1.40,1.45,1.50,1.55 and 1.60 g/cm^(3),)and fiber content(0.2%,0.4%,0.6%and 0.8%by weight of dry sand)which may influence the strength characteristics of reinforced sand after immersion were analyzed.The microstructure of reinforced sand was analyzed with nuclear magnetic resonance(NMR)and scanning electron microscope(SEM).Experimental results indicate that the compressive strength increases with the increase of polymer content and decreases with the increase of immersion time;the softening coefficients decrease with the increase of the polymer content and immersion time and increase with an increment in density and fiber content.Fiber plays an active role in reducing water-induced loss of strength at 0.6%content.

Numerical study on deformation and failure of reinforced sand

In order to investigate the deformation and failure of reinforced sand, and the reinforcing mechanism of flexible and rigid reinforcement, a set of plane strain compression tests of dense Toyoura reinforced sand with planar reinforcement of a wide range of stiffness were analysed by a nonlinear finite element method. The analysis was incorporated into an energy-based elasto-plastic constitutive model for sand to develop a stress path-independent work-hardening parameter based on the modified plastic strain energy concept. Numerical results indicate that the global stress-strain relations of sand specimens are reinforced by using relatively flexible and rigid reinforcement, and an unreinforced sand specimen can be reasonably simulated by the current finite element method. It is also found that the reinforcing mechanism and progressive failure with a development of shear bands in reinforced sand can be reasonably examined by the finite element method.

Cyclic behavior of reinforced sand under principal stress rotation

Although the cyclic rotation of the principal stress direction is important,its effect on the deformation behavior and dynamic properties of the reinforced soil has not been reported to date.Tests carried out on large-scale hollow cylinder samples reveal that the cyclic rotation of the principal stress direction results in significant variations of strain components(ε,ε,εand γ) with periodic characteristics despite the deviatoric stress being constant during tests.This oscillation can be related to the corresponding variations in the stress components and the anisotropic fabric that rotate continuously along the principal stress direction.Sand under rotation appears to develop a plastic strain.Similar trends are observed for reinforced sand,but the shear interaction,the interlocking between particles and reinforcement layer,and the confinement result in significant reductions in the induced strains and associated irrecoverable plastic strains.Most of the strains occur in the first cycle,and as the number of cycles increases,the presence of strains becomes very small,which is almost insignificant.This indicates that the soil has reached anisotropic critical state(ACS),where a stable structure is formed after continuous orientation,realignment and rearrangement of the particles accompanied with increasing cyclic rotation.Rotation in the range of 60°-135° produces more induced strains even in the presence of the reinforcement,when compared with other ranges.This relates to the extension mode of the test in this range in which σ>σand to the relative approach between the mobilized plane and the weakest horizontal plane.Reinforcement results in an increase in shear modulus while it appears to have no effect on the damping ratio.Continuous cycles of rotation result in an increase in shear modulus and lower damping ratio due to the densification that causes a decrease in shear strain and less dissipation of energy.

Numerical evaluation of sample size effect on the stress-strain behavior of geotextile-reinforced sand

This paper studies the effect of sample size on the stress-strain behavior and strength characteristics of geotextile reinforced sand using the finite element numerical analysis. The effect of sample size was investigated by studying the effects of varying the number of geotextile layers, the confining pressure and the type of geotextile. Modeling was performed on samples with five different diameters: 38, 100, 200, 500 and 600 mm. The elastic-plastic Mohr-Coulomb model was used to simulate sand behavior. Results showed that small-sized samples show higher values of peak strength and higher axial strain at failure in comparison with large-sized samples. The size effect on the behavior of samples became further apparent when the number of geotextile layers was increased or the confining pressure was decreased. In addition, the results indicated that the magnitude of the size effect on the mechanical behavior of reinforced sand decreases with an increase in the sample size.

Load eccentricity effects on behavior of circular footings reinforced with geogrid sheets

In this paper, an experimental study for an eccentrically loaded circular footing, resting on a geogridreinforced sand bed, is performed. To achieve this aim, the steel model footing of 120 mm in diameterand sand in relative density of 60% are used. Also, the effects of depth of first and second geogrid layersand number of reinforcement layers （1e4） on the settlement-load response and tilt of footing undervarious load eccentricities （0 cm, 0.75 cm, 1.5 cm, 2.25 cm and 3 cm） are investigated. Test results indicatethat ultimate bearing capacity increases in comparison with unreinforced condition. It is observed thatwhen the reinforcements are placed in the optimum embedment depth （u/D ？0.42 and h/D ？0.42）, thebearing capacity ratio （BCR） increases with increasing load eccentricity to the core boundary of footing,and that with further increase of load eccentricity, the BCR decreases. Besides, the tilt of footing increaseslinearly with increasing settlement. Finally, by reinforcing the sand bed, the tilt of footing decreases at 2layers of reinforcement and then increases by increasing the number of reinforcement layers.