Liquefaction resistance of Babolsar sand reinforced with randomly distributed fibers under cyclic loading

This research explores the performance of randomly distributed fibers in enhancing the liquefaction resistance and shear modulus of loose and medium dense sand deposits. Thirty stress-controlled cyclic triaxial tests were performed on saturated samples with and without reinforcements under undrained conditions. The effect of parameters such as fiber content, fiber length, relative density and confining pressure on liquefaction behavior of unreinforced and reinforced specimens was studied. Test results indicated that the fiber inclusions significantly increased liquefaction resistance of sand specimens. Upon increasing the fiber content and fiber length, the number of loading cycles leading to liquefaction increased. The reinforcement effect in medium dense samples was found to be more significant than that of looser samples. Further, the confining pressure had a considerable effect in reducing the liquefaction susceptibility. Shear modulus of unreinforced and reinforced samples was also evaluated; the results revealed that the shear modulus increases with increasing fiber content.