Effect of soil overburden pressure on mechanical properties of carbon FRP strips

Carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRPs) have been recently investigated as an alternative material for Geosynthetics to improve soil properties. One of the factors influencing the fiber orientation and mechanical properties of CFRP is the effect of soil overburden pressure. This study investigates the tensile behavior of cast-in-place CFRP. During the curing time of specimens, a wide range of normal stress is applied on specimens sandwiched between the soils. Two different soil types are used to determine the effect of soil grain size on the mechanical properties of CFRP. Specimens are also prepared with different specifications such as curing time and mixing soil in to the epoxy. In this study, tensile tests are conducted to investigate the effect of such parameters on tensile behavior of CFRP. The experimental results indicate that by increasing the normal stress and soil grain size, the ultimate tensile strength and the corresponding strain of CFRP decrease; however, reduction in elastic modulus is not noticeable. It should be noted that, increasing the curing period of epoxy resin and mixing soil in to the epoxy have no significant effect on the tensile properties of CFRP.