Plane strain shear strength of unsaturated fiber-reinforced fine-grained soils

Discrete randomly distributed fibers are commonly used to improve the engineering characteristics of the soil and thus soil properties such as shear strength, compressibility, density, and hydraulic conductivity. Most studies have so far focused on describing the behavior of soils containing randomly distributed fibers under dried or saturated conditions. However, the water table may seasonally fluctuate, thus generating unsaturated soil conditions. Therefore, a better understanding of the hydro-mechanical properties of unsaturated improved soils is of high necessity. In this research, the shear strength parameters of fine-grained soils were evaluated using the biaxial device available at Ruhr Universität Bochum. The applied device was modified to test unsaturated fine-grained soils with various degrees of saturation using axis translation and vapor equilibrium techniques. The experiments were conducted on fine soils containing 0, 0.5, and 1% fiber contents under a wide range of matric suctions. The ductile behavior was more noticeable in samples with lower suctions and higher straw contents. Furthermore, the shear strength of both unreinforced and reinforced fine-grained soils considerably increased by an increase in the suction. Finally, shear band inclination increased by the suction while decreasing by straw content.