Interactive Influence of Water and Fines Contents on the Strength of Compacted Cement-Stabilized Clayey Sands: Insights and Predictive Framework

Abstract

Compacted cement-stabilized soils are important geomaterials for construction projects involving backfilling, embankment construction, and ground improvement. In general, unconfined compressive strength (UCS) serves as an important design parameter for such types of materials, but it remains difficult to characterize the UCS owing to complex interactions of various influencing factors. This study aims to obtain practical insights into the effects of water and fines content on the UCS of cement-stabilized clayey sand, which is commonly encountered in reclamation projects. The experimental results show that the water content and fines content affect the strength in a combined manner. The strength decreases monotonically with increasing water content for clean sand, while it first increases and then decreases with the increase in water content for cemented clayey sands. In addition, the effects of fines content on the UCS are also affected by water content. The threshold water content and threshold fines content were identified and characterized. The maximum strength corresponding to these threshold parameters was also characterized. Finally, a new sequential framework to predict the UCS of cement-stabilized clayey sands is proposed.