Laboratory Investigation on the Strength Characteristics of Cement-Treated Base

Abstract

Cement-Treated Base (CTB) is a non-conventional method used in road bases materials to improve its engineering properties due to the hardening of cement when moisture is present and extends the period of curing times. This study investigates the effects of cement additive on properties of base layer using laboratory mechanistic evaluation of stabilized soil mixtures. Laboratory tests conducted were Unconfined Compressive Strength (UCS), Indirect Tension test for Resilient Modulus (ITRM) and Flexure Strength (FS) tests. The results revealed that by adding Portland cement, the mechanical properties of the mixture have improved where the UCS is found to be an important quality indicator. In addition, the variables that influenced these tests, which are cement content, curing time, moisture content, and dry density, play important role to determine the performance of CTB. This paper presents the finding of a correlation conducted to analyse the influences of these variables using regression and ANOVA to establish significant models with the aim of predicting the strength base on mixture parameters. Keywords: Cement-Treated Base, Unconfined Compressive Strength, Indirect Tension test for Resilient Modulus, Flexure Strength, Moisture Content, Dry Density, Regression Analysis.

Fundamentals of soil stabilization

“…These include ambient air temperature, relative humidity, type of cement used, and concentration of cement used. Guthrie and Reese [34] found that the relative strength is sensitive to the previously mentioned factors, while the relative compaction is not. Faster wind speed, higher air temperature, lower relative humidity and longer delay in compaction commonly result in a poor strength.…”

Characterization of hydraulically bound base materials through digital image correlation

“…By maintaining a lower thickness, i.e. by avoiding thickness increase, an engineer enables faster construction work and thus better use of valuable resources [1]. Furthermore, a stiffer base reduces deflections due to heavy traffic loads, thereby extending pavement life and reducing maintenance costs.…”

Advances in the Study of the Behavior of Full-Depth Reclamation (FDR) with Cement

“…In FDR, the most used test to verify that material was manufactured correctly is the unconfined compressive strength (UCS) test at short-term [10,[27][28][29][30]. But, in order for a better long-term characterization, it is necessary to perform flexural strength tests, and, more specifically, the four-point flexural beam test [8,[31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38].…”

“…This FS test is carried out using prismatic specimens and manufacturing them requires a high level of qualification and experience within the testing team [10,39]. This is the main reason for usually estimating their behavior from standardized tests, such as the unconfined compressive strength and the indirect tensile strength (ITS) tests [31,[40][41][42]. For this reason, the method used in this research is the one proposed by the University of Burgos [33].…”