Evaluation of Multiple Influences on the Unconfined Compressive Strength of Fibre-Reinforced Backfill Using a GWO–LGBM Model

Fibres can markedly enhance the uniaxial compressive strength (UCS) of cemented paste backfill (CPB). However, previous studies have mainly verified the effectiveness of polypropylene and straw fibres in improving the UCS of CPB experimentally, while systematic multi-factor evaluation remains limited. In this study, laboratory experiments were conducted on polypropylene- and straw fibre-reinforced CPB to construct a reliable dataset. The factors influencing the intensity of uniaxial compressive strength were divided into four aspects (mixture proportions, physical properties of the cement-tailings mixture, chemical characteristics of tailings, and fibre properties), and four intelligent models were developed for effectiveness analysis and UCS prediction. SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) were employed to quantify the contributions of individual features, and the findings were experimentally validated. The GWO-LGBM model outperformed the SVR, ANN, and LGBM models, achieving <i>R</i>² = 0.907, <i>RMSE</i> = 0.78, <i>MAE</i> = 0.515, and <i>MAPE</i> = 0.157 for the training set, and <i>R</i>² = 0.949, <i>RMSE</i> = 0.627, <i>MAE</i> = 0.38, and <i>MAPE</i> = 0.115 for the testing set, respectively. Feature analysis reveals that mixture proportions contribute the most to UCS, followed by the tailings' physical properties, the fibre properties, and the tailings' chemical characteristics. This study found that cement content and tailings gradation control CPB structural compactness and fibres enhance bonding between hydration products and tailings aggregates, while the chemical composition of the tailings plays an inert role, functioning mainly as an aggregate.