The whole shear deformation of rock joints significantly affects the long-term behavior and safety of engineering projects. In this paper, a new damage constitutive model related to the Weibull distribution and statistical damage theory is proposed. This model considers the shear stiffness degradation, post-peak softening, and residual phase of rock joints in the whole shearing process. Main works include the three following aspects: First, the phase of initial damage is determined on the assumption that the joint shear failure is regarded as a result of damage evolution, according to the typical joint shear curve and the three-parameter Weibull distribution. Then, a statistical damage evolution model for the whole joint shearing process is introduced to make this model be capable of describing the residual phase of rock joints. Finally, a statistical constitutive model for the whole joint shearing process is proposed by statistical damage theory, and the calculated results of the models are compared to the experimental results. The results indicate that the proposed model shows a good agreement with the experimental examples, and the proposed model can distinctly reflect the effects of residual stress, peak stress, and shear stiffness. In addition, the model parameters can be mathematically confirmed and have distinct physical meanings.

The beneficial role of combining fiber reinforcement with lime stabilization in altering soil behavior has been established in the literature. However, the coupling effect of their combination still remains unclear in terms of its magnitude and microscopic mechanism, especially for natural fibers with special microstructures. The objective of this study was to investigate the coupling effect of wheat straw fiber reinforcement and lime stabilization on the mechanical behavior of Hefei clayey soil. To achieve this, an experimental program including unconsolidated–undrained (UU) triaxial tests and SEM analysis was implemented. Static compaction test samples were prepared on untreated soil, fiber-reinforced soil, lime-stabilized soil, and lime-stabilized/fiber-reinforced soil at optimum moisture content with determining of the maximum dry density of the untreated soil. The lime was added in three different contents of 2%, 4%, and 6%, and 13 mm long wheat straw fiber slices with a cross section one-quarter that of the intact ones were mixed in at 0.2%, 0.4%, and 0.6% by dry weight of soil. Analysis of the derived results indicated that the addition of a small amount of wheat straw fibers into lime-stabilized soil improved the intensity of the strain-softening behavior associated with mere lime stabilization. The observed evidence that the shear strength increase brought by a combination of 0.4% fiber reinforcement and 4% lime stabilization was smaller than the summation of the shear strength increases brought by their presence alone in a sample demonstrated a coupling effect between fiber reinforcement and lime stabilization. This coupling effect was also detected in the comparisons of the secant modulus and failure pattern between the combined treatment and the individual treatments. These manifestations of the coupling effect were explained by a microscopic mechanism wherein the fiber reinforcing effect was made more effective by the ways in which lime chemically stabilized the soil and lime stabilization development was quickened by the water channels passing through the surfaces and honeycomb pores of the wheat straw fibers.