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Porosity/Cement Index Controlling Flexural Tensile Strength of Artificially Cemented Soils in Brazil

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Abstract

When the soil does not attain a target mechanical behaviour, modifying the project, removing and replacing the material or improving the soil is necessary. Adding Portland cement to soils and performing densification through compaction are effective approaches for ground improvement. Tensile strength is a mechanical property employed to evaluate the performance of cemented materials, and it can be assessed by flexural tensile strength tests and splitting tensile strength tests. The porosity/cement index has been shown to govern the splitting tensile strength of artificially cemented sands, but no attempt was made to find a relation between this ratio and flexural tensile strength. Hence, this study aims to quantify the influence of porosity, Portland cement content and the porosity/cement index on the flexural strength of three artificially cemented soils (sand, silt and silty sand). An experimental program of flexural and splitting tensile strength tests, as well as unconfined compression tests, was carried out to assess that influence on specimens with different porosities and cement contents. Results demonstrate that the porosity/cement index is an appropriate parameter to assess the flexural strength of the artificially cemented silty and sandy soils. The ratio between flexural tensile strength and splitting tensile strength was found to be 3.31, 4.59 and 5.19 for artificially cemented sand, silt and silty sand, respectively, being independent of porosity, cement content and porosity/cement index.

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Abbreviations

A :

Empirical scalar

a :

Empirical scalar

b :

Width of beam

C :

Cement content (expressed in relation to mass of soil)

C iv :

Volumetric cement content (expressed in relation to the total specimen volume)

D :

Empirical scalar

d :

Height of beam

D theoretical :

Theoretical scalar

E :

Empirical scalar

E theoretical :

Theoretical scalar

emax :

Maximum void ratio

emin :

Minimum void ratio

F :

Load

K 1 :

Empirical scalar

K 2 :

Empirical scalar

L :

Length of beam

q t(FTS) :

Flexural tensile strength

q t(STS) :

Splitting tensile strength

q u :

Unconfined compressive strength

R 2 :

Coefficient of determination

\(\gamma_{d}\) :

Dry unit weight

\(\gamma_{s}\) :

Unit weight of solids

\(\eta\) :

Porosity

\(\eta /C_{iv }\) :

Porosity/cement index

\(\eta /(C_{iv} )^{0.28}\) :

Adjusted porosity/cement index

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to express their appreciation to Edital 12/2014 FAPERGS/CNPq—PRONEX (Project # 16/2551-0000469-2), CNPq (INCT-REAGEO, Universal and Produtividade em Pesquisa) and PROEX-CAPES for funding the research group.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate Program in Civil Engineering, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Av. Osvaldo Aranha, 99 – 3 andar, Porto Alegre, RS, 90035-190, Brazil

    Nilo Cesar Consoli, Andressa da Silva, Alice Müller Barcelos, Lucas Festugato & Filipe Favretto

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  1. Nilo Cesar Consoli
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  2. Andressa da Silva
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  3. Alice Müller Barcelos
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  4. Lucas Festugato
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  5. Filipe Favretto
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Correspondence to Nilo Cesar Consoli.

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Consoli, N.C., da Silva, A., Barcelos, A.M. et al. Porosity/Cement Index Controlling Flexural Tensile Strength of Artificially Cemented Soils in Brazil. Geotech Geol Eng 38, 713–722 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10706-019-01059-w

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