Strength Development in Cement Admixed Clay
Soft clay deposits are in general high plastic and normally consolidated fine
grained soils and characterized by its low inherent shear strength and high
compressibility. Mixing of soft clay soils with cement as a chemical stabilizer has
become a well known technology and has been used all over the world to enhance
the shear strength and deformation characteristics of the soft clay deposits. The
main objective of paper is to summarize the geotechnical properties of clay-cement
mix. A new framework was developed to predict the different properties, such as dry
density, void ratio, and specific gravity, of clay-cement mix on the basis of the
geotechnical phase diagram.
The improvement trends were evaluated based on unconfined compression
tests carried out on soft clay samples before and after mixing with cement and at
different curing times. The results of unconfined compression tests of cement
stabilized soft clay were analyzed to provide general relationships between the
cement content, curing time, and the expected unconfined compressive strength.
The rate of increase of the unconfined compressive strength due to the increase of
cement content was found to vary with curing time. The maximum obtained
unconfined compressive strength of the clay-cement mix was approximately 10 times
of the natural clay strength and was occurred at curing time of 28 days with a cement
content of 15 %.