Development of an Empirical Model to Capture Fiber Reinforcement Effect on Shear Strength of Soils.

Mixing discrete fibers with soil creates a composite material, the fiber-reinforced soil (FRS), with improved mechanical properties. Despite recent advances, no model has been tested against results obtained for a wide range of soils and fiber types. In this study, a databank of 466 tests on fiber-reinforced soil is compiled including results of triaxial tests performed on different soils, reinforced by both natural and artificial fibers of different dimensions and shapes, which were analyzed to propose an empirical model to predict the effect of fiber reinforcement on the soil shear strength. The proposed model proved able to capture the general FRS shear strength behavior, presenting good agreement between the predicted and measured experimental results as well as well-balanced and normally distributed errors. Sensitivity analysis showed that soil grain size distribution and the length of fibers play key roles in the improvement of soil shear strength through reinforcement by fibers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]