Improvement of soil against piping phenomena by using artificial fiber

Piping sometimes is occurred due to seepage of water in hydraulic structures. The continuty of this phenomenon decreases the safety or caused the failure of a structure. In this work، experimental tests were carried out on statically compacted natural and randomly reinforced silt sandy soil samples. The randomly reinforced samples were prepared with different lengths and percentages of an artificial fiber. The tests were done in special designed and made apparatus. During the tests، seepage velocity، hydraulic gradient، permeability and seepage force were measured and calculated in different samples and compared with natural soil. The results showed that in the case of randomly reinforced soil، the resistance of soil against piping was increased. in addition، the increasing of the length and percentage of fiber also have important role in improvement of soil.