Cement is a common candidate for soil treatment when stabilization is required. Its employment in compacted earth blocks requests curing the product as efficiently as possible to obtain satisfactory ...performances. In this context, many practitioners’ recommendations exist. However, no studies have stated clearly optimum curing method required to achieve best possible strength for cement stabilized compacted earth. In this study, an exploratory analysis was used to assess the influence of moist curing duration on strength development in cement stabilized compacted earth. For this investigation, two natural earths stabilized with different types of cement were considered. The main differences between the chosen cements are their clinker content and strength class. The applied moist curing method consists of conditioning samples in moist environment (99.8% ± 0.2%RH) at ambient temperature (21 °C). Curing duration was varied between 0 (no curing) and 21 days. The uniaxial compressive strength was used as a practical indicator to inspect strength development in dry and wet conditions. Results demonstrate that moist curing is profitable until 7 days regardless of the formulation. In addition, results show that efficiency of cement stabilization depends on earth characteristics rather than cement composition. To discuss moist curing in more detail, accelerated curing conditions performed at 60 °C in ambient and moist environment were analyzed. In conclusion, some recommendations on the optimization of cement usage in compacted earth were provided.
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EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
The hygroscopic behavior of earthen materials has been extensively studied in the past decades. However, while the air flow within their porous network may significantly affect the kinetics of vapor ...transfer and thus their hygroscopic performances, few studies have focused on its assessment. For that purpose, a key parameter would be the gas permeability of the material, and its evolution with the relative humidity of the air. Indeed, due to the sorption properties of earthen material, an evolution of the water content, and thus of relative permeability, are foreseeable if the humidity of in-pore air changes. To fill this gap, this paper presents the measurement of relative permeabilities of a compacted earth sample with a new experimental set-up. The air flow through the sample is induced with an air generator at controlled flow rate, temperature, and humidity. The sample geometry was chosen in order to reduce, as much as possible, its heterogeneity in water content, and the tests were realized for several flow rates. The results, which show the evolution of gas permeability with the relative humidity of the injected air and with the water content of the material, either in adsorption or in desorption, were eventually successfully compared to predictions of the well-known Corey's law.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
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