Triaxial shear strength characteristics of lime-soil reinforced with polypropylene fiber inclusions

As an important invention, reinforced soils have been using widely in retaining walls, dams, bridge works, slopes, etc. The rapid growth of reinforced soils has been pushing the development of reinforced materials, such as geotextile, geogrid, geocell and so on. These geotechnical materials have weak point: potential failure surface is liable to appear. In the past, clay and sand were used as stuffing, their strengths are stable and less affected by the time. The lime-soils strength has much to do with the time, if it is used as filling material, is it suitable? In this paper, an experiment program is carried out to study the strength and deformation of lime-soil reinforced with polypropylene fiber inclusions. Three percentages of polypropylene fiber contents, i.e. 0.05%, 0.15% and 0.25% by weight of lime-soil are randomly included into the one-nine, two-eight and three-seven lime-soils. Based on triaxial compression tests, the influences of different reinforced rates, different lime contents, different curing ages and different confining pressures, are studied. From the results of tests, it is shown that the peak deviator stress and shear strength at failure increased at different ranges compared to the conventional lime-soil.