Mechanical Strength and Fatigue Properties of Cement-Stabilized Porous Basalt

Abstract

Porous basalts are rarely used as an aggregate for cement-stabilized materials owing to their high connected-void ratio and water-immersion permeability. To examine its engineering properties, this study investigated the mechanical strength of cement-stabilized porous basalt (CSPB) and conventional cement-stabilized macadams (CSMs) using the vertical-vibration compaction method (VVCM), established a mechanical strength prediction model for CSPB, and simulated different construction conditions to study the fatigue characteristics of CSPB, and the fatigue equation of CSPB was constructed with the help of Weibull distribution. The findings revealed that the correlation between the strengths of VVCM samples and core samples was higher, which is suitable for guiding the design and construction of CSMs. The established mechanical strength prediction model could accurately predict the mechanical strength growth pattern of CSPB, with the correlation coefficient R2 being >90%. The mechanical strength of CSPB was generally higher than that of CSMs, which was attributed to the micropumping effect of the aggregates and the reinforcing effect of mechanical bite force. The delay time and temperature had a substantial effect on the CSPB mechanical strength and fatigue life, which was attributed to the high water absorption and storage properties of porous basalts.