Mechanical Response of a Cemented Soil over a Wide Range of Porosities and Cement Contents

Abstract

The adjusted porosity/cement index η/(Civ)a has been showing its usefulness in modelling the strength and stiffness of a variety of artificially cemented soils as it encompasses into a single parameter both the influences of the compactness and of the cement content. That being so, it is theoretically possible to obtain the same mechanical response by establishing a specific η/(Civ)a value, which could be attained by several combinations of porosities and cement contents. Yet, this has not been verified over a wide spectrum of different dosages molded at the same η/(Civ)a value, especially for stiffness data. As a reason, present study addresses this issue by assessing the initial shear modulus and the unconfined compression of different dosages of an artificially cemented soil considering seven η/(Civ)avalues. A minimum of three mix designs were molded within each η/(Civ)a and five specimens were tested for each dosage. Both the stiffness and the strength results were evaluated through Tukey's multiple comparisons tests aiming to check for statistical equivalence of the obtained results within the same η/(Civ)a value. The tests results have revealed statistical differences amongst some dosages assembled with the same adjusted porosity/cement index value. Yet, both the stiffness and the strength outcomes were properly correlated to the η/(Civ)a index, yielding power-type relationships presenting great coefficients of determination.