Geotechnical Engineering Journal of the SEAGS & AGSSEA ISSN 0046-5828
Vol. 49 No.2 June 2018
Optimising Cement Dosage in Ground Improvement and Early Quality Control Schemes
By S.C. Chian
ABSTRACT: Judicious dosage of cement in soft clayey soils is key in reducing waste, time and cost in this growingly environmental conscious modern society. Despite being a well-established technique in ground improvement, studies on the prediction of strength development of cement stabilised soils are often limited to a couple of clay types or site specific. This paper presents an extensive suite of unconfined compressive strength tests of cement-mixed clayey soils over a wide range of mix ratios, curing ages and sand impurities. A strength predictive model encompassing the above variables was developed and validated with several types of clay and cement from different sources. This enables the optimisation of cement dosage to achieve a desirable unconfined compressive strength to satisfy the ground improvement criteria with ease. Quality control schemes using early age strength and portable bender element were also discussed in this paper.
