The influence of palm fiber reinforcement on the cement content of vegetated concrete substrate under the condition of equal strength

by Xiaole Huang, Xue An, Gang Zeng, Shiyuan Xiong, Xiaojun Sun

Vegetated concrete substrate (VCS) is a kind of ecological cemented soil, which has very wide application prospect in high and steep rock slope eco-protection. Cement is an important component of VCS, but it has high energy consumption and environmental pollution. Fiber reinforcement plays an positive role in improving the mechanical properties of soil, and its use as a substitute for cement content in VCS under the condition of equal strength is rarely investigated. In this study, the unconsolidated-undrained (UU) triaxial compression test of unreinforced substrate as blank control samples (BCS) and reinforced substrate as fiber reinforced samples (FRS) were carried out. The test results showed that the stress-strain curve of VCS can be divided into compaction stage, elastic stage, plastic stage and strain hardening stage. The average peak strength increased by 34.3kPa, 53.6kPa, 218kPa and 81.8kPa as cement content of VCS was 0%,4%, 6% and 8%, respectively. The relationship between the peak strength and cement content of VCS could be better fit by Boltzmann function. The mathematical model of fiber instead of cement in VCS under the condition of equal strength was established. It is found that there is a critical point of cement content according to the mathematical model. The cement of VCS can be completely replaced by plam fiber as the cement content is less than the critical point. While the cement content is higher than the critical point, the cement of VCS can be partially replaced by plam fiber. The decrease of average cement content was 17.23%, 19.00%, 24.27% and 25.34% with 0.2%, 0.4%, 0.6% and 0.8% fiber content in reinforced substrate, respectively. The theoretical method and interpolation method for fiber substitute cement content of VCS under equal strength condition were proposed, which can provide technical guidance for ecological slope protection engineering practice of vegetated concrete.