New design chart for geotechnical ground improvement: characterizing cement-stabilized sand

Cement stabilization of soil is a useful method to improve the mechanical behaviors and engineering performance of soils in geotechnical design and construction projects involving weak or liquefiable soils. Among the factors affecting the strength of cement-stabilized soils, water content and water-cement ratio are important but less well understood because of controversial views. This paper presents a systematic laboratory study to investigate the effects of water content and water-cement ratio on the unconfined compressive strength, with good control of the packing density and void ratio of the tested specimens. The effects of void ratio and cement content are also investigated. The strength of the cement-stabilized sand continuously decreased with increasing water-cement ratio within the range of 0.5 to about 3. A general equation is suggested to evaluate the unconfined compressive strength of cement-stabilized soil. Finally, a new conceptual characterization chart is proposed with consideration of the effects of cement content, water content, and water-cement ratio.