Stabilization of Crushed Basaltic Rocks and Clay Mixtures Using Cementitious Additives

Abstract

In situ stabilization using cementitious binders has become a common activity for rehabilitating degraded road pavements in Australia. Industrial waste products mixed with traditional binders like general-purpose portland (GP) cement or limes are used as cementitious binders. This paper presents the stabilization of crushed basaltic rocks and clay mixtures using three cementitious binders, namely, general-purpose cement, blended cement (GB), and a binder involving alkali-activated slag (AAS). The good-quality crushed rock was mixed with reactive fine-grained soil (clay) to represent possible field scenarios in reconstructing degraded pavements. The unconfined compressive strengths of the stabilized material at 1-day, 7-day, and 28-day curing stages were measured for varying binder content. The experimental results clearly indicated that mixing clay with good-quality crushed rock can significantly reduce the stabilization potential of the pavement material. It was also observed that the binders with industrial waste products performed well in comparison with the traditional GP cement binder.