Study on the deformation and cracking characteristics of bamboo fiber reinforced concrete anti-slide pile considering the aspect ratio, fiber dosage and its coupling effect with rebars

•The bamboo fiber used in the anti-slide pile can play the role of crack resistance.•The anti-slide pile with 1% volume ratio of bamboo fiber can achieve better flexural and crack resistance. The optimal dosage for bamboo fiber with rebars is 0.5%.•The optimal aspect ratio of bamboo fiber is between 16.7 and 23.3.•The rapid development of microcracks in anti-slide piles can be restrained effectively by the uniform distribution of bamboo fibers with appropriately small aspect ratio and volume ratio. In order to avoid cracks in anti-slide piles and thus causing brittle damage, incorporating fibers in anti-slide piles to improve their ductility is an effective way to enhance the crack resistance. Bamboo fiber, as a low carbon fiber material, has good crack resistance and toughening effect, and can be used as a new concrete reinforcement material to enhance the crack resistance of anti-slide piles. In this paper, the load–displacement relationship, deformation and cracking characteristics of 28 bamboo fiber-reinforced concrete anti-slide piles are studied considering the aspect ratio, fiber dosage and its coupling effect with rebars. The main conclusions of the study are as follows: (1) The bamboo fiber used in the anti-slide pile can play the role of crack resistance. The plain anti-slide pile produces one main tension crack and full-section fracture failure, while the anti-slide pile with the coupling effect of bamboo fiber and rebars suffers from diagonal section instability failure with one main diagonal tension crack and several secondary cracks. (2) The anti-slide pile with 1% volume ratio of bamboo fiber can achieve better flexural and crack resistance. The optimal dosage for bamboo fiber with rebars is further reduced, which is 0.5% (3) The optimal aspect ratio of bamboo fiber is between 16.7 and 23.3, which can improve the flexural performance of anti-slide piles, but the aspect ratio of bamboo fiber fails to essentially change the failure mode of anti-slide piles. Fiber dosage has a significant effect on the cracking failure mode of anti-slip piles. The rapid development of microcracks in anti-slide piles can be restrained more effectively by the uniform distribution of bamboo fibers with appropriately small aspect ratio and volume ratio.