Testing Cement Improved Residual Soil Layers
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 26, Issue 3
Abstract
Present research aims to carry out field and laboratory tests in a top cement improved residual soil layer. Regarding laboratory tests, the isolated influence of parameters such as cement percentage, porosity and water content will be studied after unconfined compression testing. Test results showed that the unconfined compressive strength () increased along with the cement percentage and with the reduction of the porosity of the compacted mixture. It was still possible to verify that the water content had reduced influence on the unconfined compressive strength, which was basically dependent of porosity and amount of cement. The research also studied the behavior of plate load tests with different diameters (D) bearing on a treated layered system with different thickness (H) considering 5% of portland cement (determined after analysis of unconfined compression test results). Triaxial tests were also carried out in specimens retrieved from the cement treated layer, cone penetration tests (CPT) were done in the cement improved layer and the outcome shows a substantial increase in tip cone resistance comparatively with the natural soil. A finite-element analysis of the plate load tests was carried out using the elastic-perfectly plastic model with Drucker-Prager failure criterion that proved suitable for the simulation. After processing results of plate load tests bearing on the cemented layered system, it was verified that the applied pressure versus settlement to diameter ratio correlation is controlled by the H/D relation, in which this factor increase takes to a stiffer and stronger response.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to express their gratitude to Brazilian Research Council (CNPq) [projects INCT-REAGEO and Produtividade em Pesquisa] for the financial support that allowed carrying out the present research.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 26 • Issue 3 • March 2014
Pages: 544 - 550
Copyright
© 2012 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jan 7, 2012
Accepted: Oct 26, 2012
Published online: Oct 29, 2012
Discussion open until: Mar 29, 2013
Published in print: Mar 1, 2014
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