Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering 92 (2017) 122–125

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Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/soildyn

Effect of cyclic loading on the behaviour of a chemically stabilised soft soil

reinforced with steel fibres
crossmark
⁎
Paulo J. Venda Oliveiraa, , António A.S. Correiaa, João M.N.P.C. Telesb, António M.G. Pedroa
a
Department of Civil Engineering, University of Coimbra, R. Luís Reis Santos, 3030-788 Coimbra, Portugal
b
Civil Engineer, R. Dr. António Amaral, 32, Vendas de Gavinhos, 3400.155, Oliveira do Hospital, Portugal

A R T I C L E I N F O A BS T RAC T

Keywords: This work studies the effect of cyclic loading on the behaviour of a soft soil chemically stabilized with Portland
Stabilised soil cement and blast furnace granulated slag (proportion 75/25) and reinforced with steel fibres. The influence on
Reinforced soil accumulated permanent axial strain and on the unconfined compressive strength and stiffness, determined by
Cyclic loading unconfined compression strength tests, is evaluated for different numbers of load cycles applied initially to the
Steel fibres
samples. For the conditions tested, the results of the cyclic stage indicate there is a number of load cycles below
Unconfined compression strength test
which the accumulated permanent axial strain increases with the number of cycles, whereas above it, it remains
almost constant. The results of the UCS tests show an increase in strength with the number of cycles, which is
more pronounced in the tests performed with a low number of cycles. It was also observed an increase in
stiffness until 2500 cycles were reached, while for higher number of cycles the opposite occurs.

1. Introduction contradictory, with an increase in Nottingham Asphalt Tests (NAT)

One of the methods employed to overcome the brittle behaviour, the
poor tensile and flexural strength exhibited by soil-binder-water mix-
tures [1,2] is the inclusion of short fibres into the mixture. The
monotonic behaviour of fibre-reinforced stabilized soils has been studied
by several authors, which used mostly synthetic fibres [1–7] and also
steel fibres [1,7,8]. In general, the use of synthetic or steel fibres
decreases the brittleness and increases the post peak strength of the
soil-binder-water mixture. However, the effects on the strength depend
on the binder content, the type of fibre and even the type of test used to
evaluate the compressive and/or tensile strength [2,7].
During their lifetime some structures are often subjected to cyclic
loading induced by different types of actions, such as earthquakes,
traffic loads, industrial machinery and waves on offshore structures.
When these structures are supported by artificially cemented soils it is
essential to know the effect of the cyclic loading on their behaviour. The
cyclic behaviour of artificially cemented soils without fibre-reinforce-
ment show that an increase in the number of load cycles promotes a
progressive degradation of the cementation bonds, increasing the
accumulated permanent deformations [9–11], reducing the stiffness
[12,13] and decreasing the yield stress [12].
Cyclic simple shear tests showed that the inclusion of fibres in the
mixture promotes a slight increase in the shear strength for higher
strain levels [14]. As for the plastic deformations, the results are
[15] and a decrease observed in cyclic triaxial tests [9] and indirect
tensile cyclic load tests [16]. The results also showed that there is an
increase in the permanent deformations with the increase in the
number of load cycles, regardless of the type of test [9,15]. However,
some differences are observed in the general trend, with the cyclic
triaxial tests [9] presenting a moderate increase at the beginning of the
cyclic stage followed by a sharp increase, while the NAT [15] shows
exactly the opposite, i.e. a sharp increase at the beginning of the cyclic
stage, followed by a plateau.
Considering the limited number of works published about this
theme, their contradictory results and the fact that they only used
synthetic fibres, it is very pertinent to study the effect of cyclic loading
on the behaviour of a soft soil chemically stabilised with a high-binder
content and reinforced with steel fibres. Based on the results of UCS
tests, the influence of the number of load cycles on the permanent
deformations, unconfined compressive strength and stiffness of the
composite material are analysed.
2. Description of the experimental work
2.1. Characteristics of the soft soil
The soft soil used in this study was collected in the “Baixo
Mondego” area, located near Coimbra, Portugal. The natural soil has

⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: pjvo@dec.uc.pt (P.J.V. Oliveira), aalberto@dec.uc.pt (A.A.S. Correia), jmcidteles@hotmail.com (J.M.N.P.C. Teles), amgpedro@dec.uc.pt (A.M.G. Pedro).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.soildyn.2016.10.006
Received 30 September 2016; Received in revised form 7 October 2016
0267-7261/ © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
P.J.V. Oliveira et al. Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering 92 (2017) 122–125

Nomenclature

The following symbols are used in this paper (basic SI units are given in parentheses):

Eu50 secant Young’s modulus for 0.5 qu (Pa);

ncycles number of load cycles;
qu maximum unconfined compressive strength (Pa);
UCS unconfined compressive strength;
wL Atterberg liquid limit (%);
wP Atterberg plastic limit (%);
εax axial strain (%);
εax-perm permanent cumulative axial strain (%);

a predominantly silty particle size distribution (sand=14%; silt=61%;
clay=25%), a specific gravity of 2.61, a low unit weight (14.6 kN/m3), a
high void ratio ( > 2.0), a high natural moisture content (80.9%) and a
high organic matter content (13.1%). This clayey-silt organic soil has
high plasticity (wL=68.0%; wP=41.9%) and is classified as OH [17]. The
soil presents low undrained shear strength ( < 25 kPa) and high
compressibility [7,18,19]. The chemical composition revealed a high
silica content, (SiO2=62%) followed by alumina (Al2O3=16%).
2.2. Characteristics of the binders and fibres
The soft soil was chemically stabilised with a binder mixture
composed of Portland cement Type I 42.5R [20] and blast furnace
granulated slag, in a dry weight proportion of 75/25, which was defined
based on a laboratory optimization study [19]. The cement and the
blast furnace granulated slag particles specific gravity are 3.18 and
2.89, respectively. The grain size distribution shows that 45% of cement
particles and 3% of slag particles are less than 45 µm. In terms of
chemical composition, the cement has a predominant content of
calcium oxide (CaO=63.0%, SiO2=19.7%; Al2O3=5.2%). The slag, be-
sides a high calcium oxide content, also presents a high silica content
(CaO=37.0%, SiO2=38.7%; Al2O3=11.6%).
The steel fibres used have a wire-hooked end to maximize their
anchorage capacity, a length of 30 mm and a diameter of 0.55 mm.
According to the manufacturer, the fibres present a tensile strength
higher than 1345 N/mm2 and an elasticity modulus of 200×103 N/mm2.
2.3. Specimen preparation and testing
To reduce the variability and heterogeneity of the samples, the soft
soil was homogenised previously. The remoulded samples of stabilized
soil with the inclusion of fibres were prepared having as a reference the
methodology proposed by EuroSoilStab [21] and the procedures defined
by Correia [19]. The complete methodology employed involved the
following steps: (i) the binder was mixed with the natural soil and with
the quantity of distilled water necessary to increase the final moisture
content of the samples to 113%, producing a slurry (this water content
was established to ensure the best compromise between the strength and
the quality of the samples [19]); (ii) the soft soil, the slurry and fibres
were mixed thoroughly using a mechanical mixer at a speed of 142 rpm
for 4 min; (iii) this homogeneous paste was introduced and compacted
directly into a cylindrical PVC mould (100 mm in diameter and 200 mm
in height) in three layers ; (iv) after the deposition of each layer the
mixture was lightly tapped by hand, subjected to vibrations by the
application of a hand drill with a steel bar near the inner surface of the
mould, and compacted with 100 kPa for 10 s; (v) the surface of the
mixture was then lightly scarified before the deposition of another layer;
(vi) subsequently the samples were cured for 28 days inside a room with
temperature (20 ± 2 °C) and humidity (95 ± 5%) controlled; (vii) after
the curing period the samples were placed on the pedestal of a universal
cyclic loading machine (Servosis MUF 400) and the electronic devices
(load cell and strain gauge transducer) were set up and adjusted; (viii)
finally, the tests were performed and the data was recorded using an
automatic data acquisition system.
Each cyclic test comprised two stages, a cyclic loading stage
followed by a UCS test. The cyclic loading stage was carried out for a
deviatoric stress level of 55% [7] of the failure value obtained in the
monotonic UCS tests (qcyclic=0.55×qu ≈450 kPa). Maintaining that
deviatoric stress level a sinusoidal excitation of 0.5 Hz, with an
amplitude (qmax−qmin) of 7% of qcyclic (≈31.5 kPa), was imposed on
the samples. These conditions were defined so that a minimum safety
factor of 1.5 was assured during the test. After the required number of
load cycles (ncycles) was applied, a monotonic UCS test [22] was
performed at a constant strain rate of 0.25%/min. All tests were

Table 1
Summary of the tests and the main results.

Property No cycles Number of cycles

Test 625 1250 2500 5000 10,000

T1 T2 T1 T2 T1 T2 T1 T2 T1 T2 T1 T2

Cyclic phase Permanent cumulative axial strain, εax-perm (%) – – 0.027 0.041 0.016 0.042 0.049 0.041 0.060 0.049 0.043 0.047
[—] [0.034] [0.029] [0.045] [0.054] [0.045]

UCS Unconfined comp. strength, qu (kPa) 891.6 747.9 1323.7 1118.2 1168.0 1214.8 1067.4 1105.4 1323.5 1369.2 1413.0 1341.0
[819.7] [1221.0] [1191.4] [1086.4] [1346.4] [1377.0]

Axial strain at failure, εax-failure (%) 0.847 0.895 0.894 1.130 0.754 0.801 0.742 0.848 0.924 1.178 1.356 1.221
[0.871] [1.012] [0.778] [0.795] [1.051] [1.288]

Young’s modulus for 0.5qu, Eu50 (MPa) 180.4 137.4 356.9 109.0 297.1 314.4 364.8 402.6 261.5 161.4 146.5 164.5
[158.9] [233.0] [305.8] [383.7] [211.5] [155.5]

[…] – Average value; Ti – Test

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P.J.V. Oliveira et al. Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering 92 (2017) 122–125

repeated at least twice in order to assure the reliability of the 0.06

methodology.
In order to accurately, and independently of other factors, evaluate 0.05

Permanent axial strain, εax-perm (%)

the influence of the number of cycles applied all tests were carried out
using a constant fibre quantity (weight of fibre per cubic metre of soil) 0.04
of 50 kg/m3 and a binder quantity (dry weight of binder per cubic 0.06
y = 0.0097ln(x) -0.035
metre of soil) of 375 kg/m3 which corresponds to a binder content 0.03
R² = 0.9984

εax-perm (%)
0.04
(ratio of binder to soil in dry mass) of 45.6% and fibre content (ratio, in
dry mass, of fibre to soil-cement) of 4.2%. This fibre and binder content 0.02
0.02
was established considering the results of previous studies [2,7]. Max
Table 1 presents a list of the tests performed as well as a summary of 0.01 Average 0.00
10 100 1000 10000
the main results obtained. Min Number of load cycles
0.00
0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000
3. Results and discussion Number of load cycles

The evolution of the axial strain with time (Fig. 1) for test T1 (2500
cycles) shows that there is an increase in the axial strain with the
increase of the ncycles, particularly at the beginning of the cyclic stage.
This behaviour observed for test T1 (2500 cycles) was also found in the
other tests performed and is in agreement with the results published in
the literature for a stabilised clay reinforced with polypropylene fibres
[15].
The effect of the ncycles on the permanent cumulative axial strain
(εax-perm) is displayed in Table 1 and in Fig. 2 for all tests carried out.
The εax-perm values shown in Table 1 correspond to the test specified,
while in Fig. 2 the values depicted consider all the tests that reached a
specific number of cycles, i.e. for 2500 cycles the values presented
correspond to the results of the tests with 2500, 5000 and 10,000
cycles. Notwithstanding some scatter, the results reveal a clear and
significant increase in the εax-perm until about 2500 cycles. For a higher
number of cycles the effect on the εax-perm tends to diminish, and for
values higher than 5000 cycles the εax-perm remains almost constant.
This behaviour is also in agreement with the results of a stabilized clay
reinforced with the polypropylene fibres [15], but differ from those
obtained with a stabilized silty sand reinforced with synthetic and coir
fibres where it was observed that, after a stage characterized by a low
increase of εax-perm, the εax-perm tends to increase significantly for high
ncycles [9]. When plotted on logarithm scale (Fig. 2), a good relationship
between the εax-perm and the ncycles can be established up to 5000 cycles
(Eq. (1)).
εax−perm = 0.0097 × ln(n cycles) − 0.035 (R ² = 0.9984)
Fig. 2. Evolution of the accumulated permanent axial strain with the number of load
cycles.
visualised in Fig. 3 for six UCS tests performed after different ncycles
were applied. The results clearly show that the application of load cycles
increases the peak strength of the mixture in comparison with the
monotonic tests. This increase appears to be related with the ncycles
performed, with more cycles resulting in higher strength. However, the
ncycles seems to have a lower impact on the post peak strength since the
results exhibit a similar trend to that obtained from the monotonic UCS
tests. As a result, the difference between the peak and the post peak
strength tends to increase with the ncycles. The similarities in the post
peak strength trends may be related with the equal fibre content used in
the sample preparation, since it is expected that for high strain levels the
tensile strength of the majority of the fibres has already been mobilized.
Fig. 4 depicts the unconfined compressive peak strength (qu) and
the Young’s modulus (Eu50), evaluated at 50% of the peak compressive
strength, with the ncycles for the UCS tests performed. The results reveal
a sharp increase in the compressive strength for a low number of load
(1)

This increase in the εax-perm is probably linked to some local

breakage of the cement bonds and the consequent transfer of stresses
from the cement matrix to the steel fibres, which, due to their high axial
stiffness, are mobilized for low strain levels. Beyond 5000 cycles the
results suggest that the cyclic loads have been absorbed by the fibres,
which are in still in elastic behaviour, justifying the constant values Fig. 3. Effect of number of load cycles on the stress-strain curves of UCS tests carried out
observed for the εax-perm. after the cyclic stage.
The effect of the ncycles on the stress-strain behaviour can be

0.55

0.50

0.45
εax (%)

0.40
Test: 2500 cycles, T1
0.35

0.30
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000
Time (s)
Fig. 4. Results of UCS tests carried out after the load cyclic stage. Effect of the number of
Fig. 1. Evolution of vertical displacement with time for test T1 (2500 cycles). load cycles on Young’s modulus and on the peak compressive strength.

124
P.J.V. Oliveira et al.
cycles applied. After that the qu increases slightly and appears to
stabilize at around 1400 kPa. This evolution is approximately similar to
that observed for the εax-perm (Fig. 2). These results reveal that when
this fibre-reinforced stabilized soil is subjected to cyclic loading its
strength tends to increase, not reflecting the expected breakage of the
cementation bonds and the consequent decay of the peak compressive
strength. This behaviour seems to indicate that the breakage of some
bonds due to cyclic loading (confirmed by the increase of εax-perm)
originates an increase of the internal strains, which is enough to
mobilize the tensile strength of the steel fibres (considering the high
axial stiffness of the steel fibres), which in turn appear to absorb and
redistribute the internal stresses in the mixtureIn fact, the results seem
to show that the effect of the mobilization of the tensile strength of the
fibres largely compensates the degradation of the soil-binder matrix
associated to the breakage of cementation bonds, justifying the increase
of the compressive strength of the mixture.
In Fig. 4, it is also observed an increase of the stiffness up to 2500
cycles, followed by its decrease for higher values. This behaviour is not
consistent with other results published in the literature, where a
continuous increase [9,12,13] or decrease [11,16] of the stiffness with
the increase of the number of load cycles is reported.
4. Conclusions
Considering the results of the cyclic UCS tests carried out on a soft
soil stabilized with a binder quantity of 375 kg/m3 (Portland cement
Type I 42.5R and blast furnace granulated slag - proportion 75/25) and
reinforced with a steel fibres quantity of 50 kg/m3, subjected to an
initial cyclic load stage (average deviatoric stress level of 0.55xqu-failure,
frequency of 0.5 Hz and amplitude of 31.5 kPa), the following observa-
tions and conclusions can be drawn:
i) The permanent cumulative axial strain increases with the number
of load cycles (mainly for the first load cycles) indicating a
progressive degradation of the cementation bonds of the solid
skeleton; for more than 5000 cycles the permanent axial strain
tends to became approximately constant.
ii) The post peak strength appears not to be related with the number
of load cycles, since this state (high strain level) corresponds to a
significant degradation of the cementitious matrix, which is high
enough to mobilize the tensile strength of the steel fibres.
iii) The unconfined compressive strength increases with the increase
of the number of load cycles, particularly for the first loading
cycles. This behaviour is associated with the increment of the
permanent axial strain and seems to indicate that the breakage of
the cementation bonds during the cyclic stage is largely compen-
sated by the mobilization of the tensile strength of the steel fibres.
iv) Finally, the stiffness of the samples subjected to cyclic loading does
not present a clear trend, increasing up to 2500 cycles and
decreasing for higher values.
125
Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering 92 (2017) 122–125
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to express their thanks to CIMPOR and to
Biu International for supplyingthe binders and the fibres, and to the
institutions that financially supported the research: CIEPQPF (project
EQB/UI0102/2014) and ISISE (project UID/ECI/04029/2013).
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