The Liquefaction Behavior of Poorly Graded Sands Reinforced with Fibers

Abstract

This study focuses on the performance of fibers, improving the resistance to liquefaction in loose sands, medium sands, and dense sands in Izmir, Turkey. A systematic testing schedule consisting of cyclic triaxial tests was held under stress-controlled and undrained conditions on saturated sand specimens with and without fiber reinforcements. The major parameters having effects on the dynamic behavior such as fiber content, fiber length, and relative density on the liquefaction behavior and the excess pore water pressure developments of specimens with and without fibers were investigated. If the fiber content or the fiber length was increased in the specimens, higher number of loading cycles was needed in order to experience the liquefaction of sands. The reinforcement effect in medium-dense specimens was found to be apparently distinctive compared to loose specimens. The curves of pore water pressures and shear strains were achieved for the fiber-reinforced sands. The boundaries of pore water pressure curves presented in the literature on the clean sands were utilized in comparison with the pore water pressure curves of fiber-reinforced sands of this study. As a conclusion, the results presented in this study are useful to develop insight into the behavior of clean and fiber-reinforced sands under seismic loading conditions. Based on the test results, it was found that the number of loading cycles had a strong impact on the excess pore pressure generation.