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Introduction
Portland cement is used worldwide in the improvement of local
soils, particularly as a soil-cement mixture of a compacted layer
over a low bearing capacity soil. In such cases, Consoli et al.
2003 has shown that the system failure mechanism usually start
up under tensile stresses at the base of the improved layer. Although it would seem more reasonable to use the tensile strength
as a direct measure of the soil-cement strength, there are no dosage methodologies based on rational criteria considering the effect of different variables e.g., amount of cement and porosity
on the soil-cement tensile strength.
The first rational dosage methodology for soil-cement was developed by Consoli et al. 2007 considering the voids/cement
ratio / Cv, defined by the porosity of the compacted mixture
divided by the volumetric cement content, as an appropriate parameter to evaluate qu of the soil-cement mixture. Nowadays,
even though it is recognized that compressive and tensile
strengths are intimately related on artificially cemented soils e.g.,
Clough et al. 1981; Consoli et al. 2001, it is still not clear
Experimental Program
The experimental program has been carried out in two parts. First,
the geotechnical properties of the soil and cement were characterized. Then, a number of splitting tensile and unconfined compression tests was carried out. In addition, measurements of matric
suction were also performed in most specimens to check a possible influence on the results.
Materials
The Osorio sand used in the testing was obtained from the region
of Porto Alegre, in Southern Brazil, being classified ASTM
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Methods
Molding and Curing of Specimens
For the splitting tensile and unconfined compression tests, cylindrical specimens 50 mm in diameter and 100-mm high were used.
Once established a given voids ratio e, the target dry unit weight
d was calculated according to Eq. 1
e=
s
1
d
where s = solids unit weight. A target dry unit weight for a given
specimen was then established through the dry mass of soilcement divided by the total volume of the specimen. In order to
keep the dry unit weight of the specimens constant with increasing cement content, a small portion of the soil was replaced by
cement. As the specific gravity of the cement grains 3.15 is
greater than the specific gravity of the soil grains 2.65, for the
calculation of void ratio and porosity, a composite specific gravity
based on the soil and cement percentages in the specimens was
used.
After the soil, cement, and water were weighed, the soil and
cement were mixed until the mixture acquired a uniform consistency. The water was then added continuing the mixture process
until a homogeneous paste was created. The amount of cement for
each mixture was calculated based on the mass of dry soil and the
moisture content. The specimen was then statically compacted in
three layers inside a cylindrical split mold, which was lubricated,
so that each layer reached the specified dry unit weight. The top
of each layer was slightly scarified. After the molding process, the
specimen was immediately extracted from the split mold and its
weight, diameter, and height measured with accuracies of about
0.01 g and 0.1 mm, respectively. The samples were then placed
inside plastic bags to avoid significant variations of moisture content. They were cured for 6 days in a humid room at 23 2 C
and relative humidity of above 95%.
The samples were considered suitable for testing if they met
the following tolerances:
Dry unit weight d: degree of compaction between 99 and
101% the degree of compaction being defined as the value
obtained in the molding process divided by the target value of
d; and
Dimensions: diameter to within 0.5 mm and height of 1
mm.
Splitting Tensile Tests
Splitting tensile tests followed Brazilian standard NBR 7222
Brazilian Standard Association 1983. An automatic loading machine, with maximum capacity of 50 kN and proving rings with
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Results
Effect of the Cement Content and Porosity on Tensile
and Compressive Strengths
Fig. 1 shows the raw data for the three studied voids ratio and
the fitted lines for the splitting tensile strength qt as a function
of the cement content C, the latter defined by Eq. 2 as
C=
Wc
Ws
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Vv
Vtotal
Vv
=
=
Cv
Vc
Vc
Vtotal
qukPa = 28,327
Cv
1.30
Cv
qt
=
qu
28,327
Cv
1.30
4,266
1.30
= 0.15
It can be seen in Eq. 6 that qt / qu is a scalar for the sandcement blend, being independent of porosity, cement content, or
voids/cement ratio. So, there is a straight proportionality between
tensile and compressive strengths, which is valid for the whole
Cv
1.30
Fig. 7. Variation of both splitting tensile qt and unconfined compressive strengths qu with voids/cement ratio
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Conclusions
From the data presented in this technical note, the following conclusions can be drawn:
A power function adapts well to both qt C and qu C sandcement mixture relations;
The reduction in porosity of the compacted mixture increases
both the tensile and compressive strengths;
The voids/cement ratio / Cv has been shown to be an appropriate index parameter to evaluate both splitting tensile qt
and unconfined compressive qu strength of sand-cement mixtures. Both qt and qu reduce with increasing / Cv values; and
The qt / qu ratio is a scalar 0.15 for the sand-cement mixture
evaluated in the present study, being independent of voids/
cement ratio. As a consequence, dosage methodologies based
on rational criteria can concentrate either on tensile or compression tests, once they are interdependable.
Acknowledgments
The writers wish to express their gratitude to Brazilian Research
Council CNPq/MCT Projects Produtividade em Pesquisa Grant
No. 301869/2007-3, Edital Universal Grant No. 472851/2008-0,
PNPD Grant No. 558474/2008-0, and INCT, to Brazilian Electrical Energy Agency ANEEL Project P&D Grant No. 0089-036/
2006-CEEE-GT/9936455, and to PRODOC CAPES for their
financial support to the research group.
Notation
The following symbols are used in this technical note:
C cement content expressed in relation to mass
of dry soil;
Cv volumetric cement content expressed in
relation to the total specimen volume;
D50
e
qt
qu
R2
Wc
Ws
d
s
/ Cv
References
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