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Accepted manuscript doi: 10.1680/jgeen.18.00243 Accepted manuscript As a service to our authors and readers, we are putting peer-reviewed accepted manuscripts (AM) online, in the Ahead of Print section of each journal web page, shortly after acceptance. Disclaimer The AM is yet to be copyedited and formatted in journal house style but can still be read and referenced by quoting its unique reference number, the digital object identifier (DOI). Once the AM has been typeset, an ‘uncorrected proof’ PDF will replace the ‘accepted manuscript’ PDF. These formatted articles may still be corrected by the authors. During the Production process, errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal relate to these versions also. Version of record The final edited article will be published in PDF and HTML and will contain all author corrections and is considered the version of record. Authors wishing to reference an article published Ahead of Print should quote its DOI. When an issue becomes available, queuing Ahead of Print articles will move to that issue’s Table of Contents. When the article is published in a journal issue, the full reference should be cited in addition to the DOI. Downloaded by [ Imperial College London Library] on [28/05/19]. Copyright © ICE Publishing, all rights reserved.
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  • Accepted manuscript doi: 10.1680/jgeen.18.00243

    Accepted manuscript

    As a service to our authors and readers, we are putting peer-reviewed accepted manuscripts

    (AM) online, in the Ahead of Print section of each journal web page, shortly after acceptance.

    Disclaimer

    The AM is yet to be copyedited and formatted in journal house style but can still be read and

    referenced by quoting its unique reference number, the digital object identifier (DOI). Once

    the AM has been typeset, an ‘uncorrected proof’ PDF will replace the ‘accepted manuscript’

    PDF. These formatted articles may still be corrected by the authors. During the Production

    process, errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers

    that apply to the journal relate to these versions also.

    Version of record

    The final edited article will be published in PDF and HTML and will contain all author

    corrections and is considered the version of record. Authors wishing to reference an article

    published Ahead of Print should quote its DOI. When an issue becomes available, queuing

    Ahead of Print articles will move to that issue’s Table of Contents. When the article is

    published in a journal issue, the full reference should be cited in addition to the DOI.

    Downloaded by [ Imperial College London Library] on [28/05/19]. Copyright © ICE Publishing, all rights reserved.

  • Accepted manuscript doi: 10.1680/jgeen.18.00243

    Submitted: 03 December 2018

    Published online in ‘accepted manuscript’ format: 10 May 2019

    Manuscript title: Behaviour of silty sands stabilised with cement subjected to hard

    environmental conditions

    Authors: Nilo Cesar Consoli1, Mariana S. Carretta

    1, Helena B. Leon

    1, Maria Eduarda B.

    Schneider1, Naiara C. Reginato

    1 and J. Antônio H. Carraro

    2

    Affiliations: 1Graduate Programme in Civil Engineering, Universidade Federal do Rio

    Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil and 2Department of Civil and Environmental

    Engineering, Imperial College London, London, UK

    Corresponding author: Nilo Cesar Consoli, Graduate Programme in Civil Engineering,

    Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil.

    E-mail: [email protected]

    Downloaded by [ Imperial College London Library] on [28/05/19]. Copyright © ICE Publishing, all rights reserved.

  • Accepted manuscript doi: 10.1680/jgeen.18.00243

    Downloaded by [ Imperial College London Library] on [28/05/19]. Copyright © ICE Publishing, all rights reserved.

  • Accepted manuscript doi: 10.1680/jgeen.18.00243

    Abstract

    The present study evaluates the effect of three distinct amounts of fines, Portland cement and dry unit weights

    on the accumulated loss of mass (ALM), maximum shear modulus at small strains (G0) and tensile strength (qt)

    of stabilised sands subjected to wet-dry cycles. Tensile strength test results showed that addition of fines to a

    sand stabilised with cement increased its tensile strength, irrespective of the dry unit weight (d) and cement

    amount present in the mixture. Increasing the amounts of fines of compacted cement-stabilised silty sand

    specimens subjected to wetting-drying cycles reduces ALM and increases G0 and qt of the mixtures. This may be

    due to the fact that specimens with larger amounts of fines have more contact points amongst particles, which

    provides better opportunities for the cement to develop more efficient bonds within the soil fabric, improving its

    mechanical performance. The increase in cement content and in d of compacted cement-stabilized silty sand

    specimens reduced their ALM and increased G0 after each one of the twelve wet-dry cycles. The G0 and qt of

    cement-stabilized silty sand specimens with fines increases up to the sixth cycle, remaining practically constant

    after that, when these specimens are subjected to wetting-drying cycles.

    Keywords: Strength & testing of materials; geotechnical engineering; granular materials; nonplastic fines; soil

    stabilization; Portland cement; stiffness; tensile strength; hard environmental conditions

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  • Accepted manuscript doi: 10.1680/jgeen.18.00243

    INTRODUCTION

    A dense layer of sandy soil stabilized with Portland cement superimposing weak soils

    is a widespread technique used to enhance the bearing capacity of spread footings. Similar

    approaches are used to improve base/subbase layers in pavements or the foundation layers for

    pipelines. In these applications, failure typically starts with the development of tensile strains

    at the bottom of the improved layer (Consoli et al. 2008; Consoli et al. 2009; Dormon and

    Metcalf 1965). To understand the variation of durability, small-strain shear stiffness and

    tensile strength of sandy soils stabilized with early-strength Portland cement exposed to hard

    environmental conditions (through the use of wet-dry cycles), the assessment of their long-

    term performance is required. However, previous studies have mainly focused on clayey

    soils. These studies have tried to assess whether the improvements caused by Portland

    cement/lime stabilization could be undermined by exposure to hard environmental conditions

    such as those imparted by freezing-thawing (Consoli et al. 2017) or water circulation (Le

    Runigo et al. 2009). The advantages of lime/cement stabilization of clayey soils have been

    shown to be partially lost when the stabilized soil is exposed to hard environmental

    conditions (Chittoori 2008; Stoltz et al. 2014; Consoli et al. 2018; Chittoori et al. 2018).

    Thus, it is critical to understand the role of consecutive dry-wet cycles and their probable

    influence on the behaviour of sandy soils stabilized with Portland cement. Another variable

    that has been shown to be important in sandy soils is the content of fines. Carraro et al.

    (2009) tested various mixtures of sands with either plastic or non-plastic fines and showed

    that all aspects of the mechanical behaviour investigated in their study are affected by the

    amount of the fines present in the sand. They found that the addition of nonplastic silt to the

    host sand increases both the peak and critical state friction angles. Besides, G0 is affected

    (reduced) by the amount of fines. Phan et al. (2016) studied the influence of low plasticity

    fines content on sand-fines specimens at a given relative density and found out that as fines

    content increase the internal friction angle decreases and the cohesion intercept increases.

    Regarding liquefaction of sandy soils, Wang and Wang (2010) have shown that for a constant

    dry density, the increase of fines content in a sand up to 30% decreases soil liquefaction

    resistance with increasing fines content. Esseler-Bayat et al. (2017) have also shown that

    clean sand specimens have higher liquefaction resistance compared with that of sands with up

    to 10% of fines content. Looking at the effect of fines content in stabilised sands, Hataf and

    Jamali (2018) have found that considerable increase in cohesion intercept of stabilized soils

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  • Accepted manuscript doi: 10.1680/jgeen.18.00243

    can be achieved for sand specimens with up to 10% fines content.

    The present study systematically evaluates the effect of fines content (10, 20 and

    30%), Portland cement content (5, 8 and 11%) and dry unit weight (14.5, 15.5 and 14.5

    kN/m3) on the accumulated loss of mass (ALM), maximum shear modulus at small strains

    (G0) and tensile strength (qt) of compacted sandy soils stabilized with an early-strength

    Portland cement subjected to wet-dry cycles to emulate exposure to hard environmental

    conditions.

    EXPERIMENTAL METHODS

    Materials

    High early strength Portland cement – PC III (ASTM 2016) was used in this study to

    stabilize three nonplastic silty sands. The nonplastic silty sands were obtained by adding three

    distinct amounts of nonplastic fines (10, 20 or 30%) to Osório sand. Osório sand is a uniform

    fine silica sand with rounded particles and specific gravity equal to 2.63. A mineralogical

    analysis conducted on the sample suggests that quartz is the predominant constituent present

    in the sand particles. Osório sand is classified as SP according to the Unified Soil

    Classification System (ASTM 2017a). Rice husk ash obtained from a rice company that

    incinerates rice husk for power generation was used as fines. The specific gravity of rice husk

    ash is 2.20. X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD) performed on rice-husk ash shows the presence

    of cristobalite (SiO2) as the dominant mineral. X-ray fluorescence (XRF) tests revealed that

    the studied ash is mainly composed of SiO2 (91%). Rice husk ash is classified as ML (ASTM

    2017a). The particle size distributions of all materials tested are presented in Figure 1. Their

    physical properties such as specific gravity (Gs), mean particle size (D50), etc., are

    summarized in Table 1. According to the Unified Soil Classification System, mixtures of

    Osório sand with 10, 20 or 30% of rice husk ash are classified as silty sands (SM). The

    specific gravity of the Portland cement grains is 3.15. Distilled water was employed in all

    stages of the testing program.

    Specimen Preparation and Curing

    Sample preparation started by dry mixing the sand with the required amount of Portland

    cement until mixture homogeneity was visually observed. For all mixtures tested, the mass of

    cement (mc) used was determined based on the target cement content (C) and the dry mass of

    soil (ms) required to prepare each specimen so that C = mc / (mc + ms). Distilled water was

    then added to the mixture until mixture uniformity was achieved. Each specimen was

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  • Accepted manuscript doi: 10.1680/jgeen.18.00243

    statically compressed in three layers inside a cylindrical mould. Sample mixing and specimen

    preparation was completed in less than an hour. Specimen diameter, length and mass were

    determined immediately after the specimen was removed from the mould. Prior to any of the

    testing procedures that will be described next, all specimens were cured for seven days inside

    a room with humidity- and temperature-control at 95% and 22º±2ºC. Cylindrical specimens

    with diameter and height equal to 50 and 100 mm, respectively, were used in the splitting

    tensile strength testing program. Changes in durability and small strain stiffness of specimens

    subjected to wetting-drying cycles were assessed on specimens with diameter and height

    equal to 100 and 127 mm, respectively (ASTM 2015).

    Splitting Tensile Strength Tests

    Sandy soil-cement layers used as pavement base layer or as a stabilized base for spread

    footings usually collapse once the tensile strength at the bottom of the stabilized layer is

    reached (Dormon and Metcalf 1965; Consoli et al. 2011). As a result, splitting tensile

    strength tests have been conveniently used to demonstrate the efficiency of Portland cement

    stabilization for sandy soils. In this study, splitting tensile strength tests were conducted in

    accordance to ASTM (2017b) using a 10-kN loading cell with resolution of 0.005-kN. All

    splitting tensile strength test specimens were submerged in water for 24 hours before testing

    to minimize suction effects. If suction is not reduced to smallest possible values (preferably

    zero), it may have an undesirable strong impact on tensile strength.

    This testing program was specifically developed to evaluate the effects of the porosity-

    cement ratio (by systematically varying the dry unit weight and Portland cement content of

    the specimens) and number of wet-dry cycles on the tensile strength of the three artificially

    cemented silty sands tested. The target compaction parameters used for specimen preparation

    were selected based on the standard Proctor compaction curve of the silty sand containing

    10% of fines (Figure 2). As shown in Fig. 2, three target dry unit weight (d) levels of 16.5,

    15.5 and 14.5 kN/m3 and a single target water content of 14 % were selected and used to

    prepare the test specimens. These three target compaction levels were also adopted for the

    other two percentages of Portland cement used (5 and 11%) leading to a total of 27

    combinations among soil type, amount of cement and dry unit weights used.

    Durability Tests Due to Wetting-Drying Cycles

    Durability tests following wetting and drying cycles were carried out following ASTM

    (2015) on all mixtures of nonplastic silty sands stabilized with Portland cement tested in this

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  • Accepted manuscript doi: 10.1680/jgeen.18.00243

    study. This allowed assessment of the loss of mass of specimens due to the repeated (twelve)

    wet-dry cycles followed by brushing strokes. Each cycle starts by oven drying the specimen

    for 42 h at 71o±2

    oC. Next, the specimens are brushed several times by applying a force of

    13.3-N. At the end of each cycle, specimens are submerged in water for 5 h at 23o±2

    oC.

    In this testing program, the target variables used to prepare the specimens were similar

    to the variables used for the splitting tensile strength tests (i.e., sandy soil type, cement

    content, dry unit weight and water content). However, a reduced number of levels were used,

    as summarized in Table 2, leading to a total of 6 combinations among soil type, amount of

    cement and dry unit weight. Two specimens were prepared for each combination tested. The

    first specimen was submitted to the regular brushing stroke procedure whereas the second

    specimen (not brushed) was used to obtain the maximum shear modulus at small strains (G0)

    through pulse velocity testing, as described next.

    In addition to the specimens subjected to regular durability tests, a few well-performing

    specimens of silty sands containing either 10 or 30 % of fines stabilized with the highest

    Portland cement content (11 %) and dry unit weight (16.5 kN/m3) used in this study were also

    prepared. These were subjected to additional splitting tensile strength tests after being

    exposed to zero, 6 and 12 wetting-drying cycles carried out using the regular durability

    testing protocol, except by the brushing stage, which was not carried out in such specimens.

    Ultrasonic Pulse Velocity Tests

    The measurement of ultrasonic pulse velocity followed ASTM (2008) and was used to

    assess the maximum shear modulus at small strains (G0) for the second set of (unbrushed)

    specimens prepared for the 10 combinations of testing variables used in the regular durability

    tests, as described above. These measurements were carried out before the first cycle and

    after cycles 1, 3, 6, 9 and 12.

    RESULTS AND ANALYSIS

    Tensile Strength

    Figure 3a shows the variation of the splitting tensile strength (qt) as a function of the

    porosity-cement index (/Civ), expressed as porosity () divided by the volumetric cement

    content (Civ), the latter expressed as a percentage of cement volume regarding total volume,

    which is raised to the adjusted exponent of 0.28 (Consoli et al. 2007, 2016) for fitting

    purposes. Best-fit trendlines presented in Equations 1, 2 and 3 are also plotted in Fig. 3a,

    which yield coefficients of determinations (R2) of 0.87, 0.89 and 0.83 for sands with 10, 20

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  • Accepted manuscript doi: 10.1680/jgeen.18.00243

    and 30% fines, respectively. The experimental data shown in Fig. 3(a) includes

    measurements obtained for the three silty sands stabilized with Portland cement after 7 days

    of curing. For each silty sand dataset shown in Fig. 3, the corresponding trendline fits data

    that includes all three Portland cement contents (5, 8 and 11%) and dry unit weights (14.5,

    15.5 and 16.5 kN/m3) used in the experiments.

    ( ) [

    ( ) ]

    (1)

    ( ) [

    ( ) ]

    (2)

    ( ) [

    ( ) ]

    (3)

    A possible expression to specify the general relationship between qt and the

    porosity/cement index for sandy soils stabilized with Portland cement was proposed by

    Consoli et al. (2011) as stated in Eq. (4).

    [

    ( ) ]

    (4)

    where Y, Z and D are empirical scalar parameters that must be determined experimentally for

    a given stabilized sand.

    In an attempt to provide physical significance to the existing empirical database,

    Diambra et al. (2018) proposed a theoretical model based on the concept of superposition of

    the failure strength contributions of the sand and cement phases to establish a link between

    the inherent properties of sandy soil and Portland cement grains and the empirical

    coefficients of Eq. (4). In summary, their analysis yields

    [

    ( ) ⁄]

    (5)

    where k and b are also empirical scalar parameters that need to be determined for a given

    stabilized soil mixture. By comparing the empirical and theoretically-derived Equations (4)

    and (5), respectively, it becomes apparent that Z(=b) and D(=1/b) are not independent

    parameters. Thus, if D=0.28 is used (e.g. Consoli et al. 2007, 2016), then b must be equal to

    3.57, which is similar to the empirical value of 3.60 derived from the experiments and used to

    fit Equations (1) to (3).

    Alternatively, Eq. (5) may be simply re-written as

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  • Accepted manuscript doi: 10.1680/jgeen.18.00243

    (6)

    If no attempt is made to optimize the fitting between the experimental data and Eq. (6),

    resulting in ( ⁄ ), it can be seen from Fig. 3b that the use of the reciprocal of the

    porosity-cement index as the independent variable already leads to coefficients of

    determination above 0.70. This may have several advantages. First, the tensile strength is

    shown to be directly proportional to the volumetric cement content and inversely proportional

    to the porosity of the mixtures, as expected. Secondly, the resulting expression is simple and

    requires evaluation of a single empirical parameter (K). The physical meaning of this single

    empirical parameter K requires further analysis and additional knowledge of inherent fabric

    characteristics of the mixtures tested, which are outside the scope of the present manuscript.

    However, the existing data clearly shows that K has a strong correlation and linearly

    increases with the amount of fines present in the mixtures tested (Figure 4). Other fabric

    characteristics such as the coordination number (Z) (Thornton 2000) may be related to K as

    well, but this is out of the scope of the present study, as mentioned above, and will need to be

    verified in future studies. Nevertheless, an increase of the nonplastic fines content of the

    sands tested from 10 to 20% and from 10 to 30% increased the tensile strength of the cement-

    treated silty sands by about 28 and 60%, respectively, irrespective of the amount of cement

    and dry unit weight present in the mixture. A possible reason for the increase in qt with

    increasing fines content is that specimens with larger amounts of fines have more contacts

    points among particles (or higher coordination number). This allows better opportunity for

    the Portland cement to develop more efficient bonds, increasing the tensile strength of the

    mixture, as suggested by Chang and Woods (1992).

    Durability

    Figure 5(a) shows the variation of the accumulated loss of mass (ALM) with the number

    of wet-dry cycles for compacted sands with 10, 20 and 30% of fines stabilized with 11%

    Portland cement. All specimens shown in this figure were compacted with d of 16.5 kN/m3.

    Increasing the amount of fines in the compacted sandy soil-cement mixture reduces the ALM

    of the specimen after each one of the twelve wet-dry cycles [Fig. 5(a)]. The reason for the

    reduction in ALM with the increase in the amount of fines is that the fabric of the specimens

    with greater amounts of fines has a larger number of particle contacts. This provides better

    opportunities for particle bonding following Portland cement hydration (Chang and Woods

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  • Accepted manuscript doi: 10.1680/jgeen.18.00243

    1992), increasing mixture durability. In Figure 5(b) the variation of ALM with the number of

    cycles is presented for the sand containing 30% of fines stabilized with 5, 8 and 11% Portland

    cement and compacted with d of 16.5 kN/m3. Increasing the cement content of the

    compacted sandy soil-cement mixtures reduces the ALM of the specimen after each one of the

    twelve wet-dry cycles. Increasing the Portland cement content of the mixture leads to the

    development of stronger cementitious bonds among the soil particles, thus reducing the ALM

    of the specimens. Finally, Figure 5(c) shows that increasing the compacted dry unit weight of

    the sand with 30% of fines stabilized with 11% of Portland cement from 15.5 to 16.5 kN/m3

    reduces the ALM of specimens by about half. The larger the d, the smaller the porosity, thus

    increasing the coordination number and potential for more effective bonding at the same

    cement content.

    Maximum Shear Modulus at Small Strains

    The overall variation of the maximum shear modulus at small strains (G0) with the

    number of wet-dry cycles is presented in Fig. 6. As these measurements were carried out on

    the second set of (unbrushed) specimens, as described earlier in the experimental program,

    Figs. 6(a), 6(b) and 6(c) refer to the same set of testing conditions discussed for Figures 5(a),

    5(b) and 5(c) (i.e., analyses of the effects of fines content, cement content and dry unit

    weight, respectively). Thus, these figures may be thought as mirror images of the trends

    shown in Fig. 5, if the plots are flipped around the horizontal axis (i.e., the same factors that

    would lead to an increase in ALM should cause a decrease in G0). Fig. 6(a) shows that

    increasing the amount of fines of the compacted sandy soil-cement mixture increases G0 after

    each one of the twelve wet-dry cycles. As discussed earlier, this increase in stiffness is due to

    the higher coordination number (or number of particle contacts), which provides better

    opportunity for bonding development following Portland cement hydration (Chang and

    Woods 1992). Interestingly, for the mixture containing only 10% of fines, G0 increases only

    up to the end of the first cycle, remaining constant afterwards. Conversely, the G0 of mixtures

    containing 20 and 30% of fines continue to increase up to about the end of the sixth cycle,

    remaining constant after that. A possible reason for this is that, for higher fines contents,

    pozzolanic reactions amongst the Ca++

    freed during Portland cement hydration and the excess

    fines present in the mixture continues to occur up to a longer period (number of cycles). This

    may also be due to the more effective bonding that can develop in sands containing fines with

    higher coordination number/fines content as a result of the more efficiently packed fabric that

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  • Accepted manuscript doi: 10.1680/jgeen.18.00243

    arises as the threshold fines content (Kuerbis et al. 1988) is approached. Figure 6(b) is

    equivalent to Fig. 5(b) in that the effect of Portland cement content is accounted for the silty

    sand with 30% of fines compacted with d of 16.5 kN/m3. Increasing the cement content of

    the compacted silty sand proportionally increases G0 of the specimens after each one of the

    twelve wet-dry cycles. The reason for this is that higher amounts of Portland cement develop

    more bonds. However, G0 increases stop after the first, third and sixth wet-dry cycles for

    cement contents equal to 5, 8 and 11%, respectively. Lastly, Figure 6(c) shows that for the

    same compacted silty sand with 30% of fines, an increase in d from 15.5 to 16.5 kN/m3

    increases G0 by about 50%. This is due to the lower porosity and higher coordination number

    (thus particle contacts), which allow the Portland cement to develop more efficient bonds

    (Chang and Woods 1992), as discussed earlier.

    Post-Durability Tensile Strength

    The variation of qt with the number of wet-dry cycles for select specimens of

    compacted (d of 16.5 kN/m3) silty sands with 10 and 30 % of fines stabilized with 11%

    Portland cement is presented in Fig. 7. Increasing the amount of fines from 10 to 30% for

    these stabilized silty sands increases qt of the specimens tested after zero, six and twelve wet-

    dry cycles. Similarly, to previous observations, the higher coordination number (i.e., particle

    contacts) and the larger amount of fines present in the silty sand with 30% fines favourably

    increase its qt, as shown by Chang and Woods (1992) through SEM microscopy on various

    cemented sands. Oven-drying for 42 hours at 71o±2

    oC throughout the drying stages of the

    wetting-drying cycles may also help accelerate the chemical reactions induced by the

    Portland cement increasing qt of the compacted silty sands with 10 and 30% of fines in early

    cycles. Subsequent cycles (after 6th

    ) do not seem to continue to affect qt (Fig. 7), which is

    consistent with stiffness trends shown in Fig. 6(a).

    CONCLUSIONS

    Based on the results of the present study, the following conclusions can be made:

    Increasing the nonplastic fines content of the sands tested from 10 to 20% and from 10 to

    30% increased the tensile strength of the cement-treated silty sands by about 28 and 60%,

    respectively, irrespective of the cement content and dry unit weight of the mixture. This

    might be due to the fact that specimens with larger amounts of fines have more contact

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  • Accepted manuscript doi: 10.1680/jgeen.18.00243

    points amongst particles (i.e., higher coordination number), thus providing better

    opportunities for the Portland cement to develop more efficient bonds;

    The relationship [

    ( ) ]

    is valid for all of the compacted cement-stabilized

    silty sands tested (with fines content ranging from 10 to 30%), where the scalar k is

    proportional to the fines content of the sand; a simpler, more fundamental form of this

    relationship was shown to be equal to qt=K (Civ ⁄η), where K is directly related to the fines

    content and/or coordination number of the mixture;

    Increasing the fines content (from 10 to 30%) of the compacted cement-stabilized silty

    sand specimens subjected to twelve wet-dry cycles reduced ALM and increased G0 and qt

    of the sands;

    The increase in cement content (from 5 to 11%) and d of the compacted cement-

    stabilized silty sands proportionally decreased the ALM and increased the G0 of the

    specimens after each one of the twelve wet-dry cycles;

    When subjected to wetting-drying cycles, the G0 and qt of cement-stabilized silty sands

    with 10 to 30% of fines increased up to the sixth cycle, remaining practically constant

    after that;

    Addition of rice husk ash fines to a uniform clean silica sand improved the overall

    performance of the resulting Portland cement-stabilized silty sands subjected to hard

    environmental conditions.

    ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

    The authors wish to thank to PRONEX FAPERGS/CNPq (16/2551-0000469-2), CAPES-

    PROEX and CNPq (INCT-REAGEO, Universal and Produtividade em Pesquisa) for funding

    the research group.

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  • Accepted manuscript doi: 10.1680/jgeen.18.00243

    NOTATIONS

    ALM accumulated loss of mass (sum of dry mass lost due to brushing up to a certain cycle divided by

    the initial mass of the specimen)

    Cc coefficient of curvature

    Civ volumetric cement content (cement volume divided by the total volume of specimen)

    Cu coefficient of uniformity

    D10 equivalent particle diameter (at which 10% of the material weight is finer)

    D30 particle diameter at which 30% of the material weight is finer

    D50 mean particle diameter (at which 50% of the material weight is finer)

    D60 particle diameter at which 60% of the material weight is finer

    G0 maximum shear modulus at small strains

    qt splitting tensile strength

    R2 coefficient of determination

    η porosity

    η/Civ porosity/cement index

    d dry unit weight

    REFERENCES

    ASTM (2008). “Standard test method for laboratory determination of pulse velocities and

    ultrasonic elastic constants of rock.” ASTM D 2845-08, West Conshohocken,

    Philadelphia.

    ASTM (2015). “Standard test methods for wetting and drying compacted soil-cement

    mixtures.” ASTM D559, West Conshohocken, Philadelphia.

    ASTM (2016). “Standard specification for Portland cement.” ASTM C150, West

    Conshohocken, Philadelphia.

    ASTM (2017a). “Standard practice for classification of soils for engineering purposes

    (Unified Soil Classification System).” ASTM D2487, West Conshohocken,

    Philadelphia.

    ASTM (2017b). “Standard test method for splitting tensile strength of cylindrical concrete

    specimens.” ASTM C496, West Conshohocken, Philadelphia.

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  • Accepted manuscript doi: 10.1680/jgeen.18.00243

    Carraro, J.A.H., Prezzi, M.; and Salgado, R. (2009). “Shear strength and stiffness of sands

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    TABLE 1. Physical properties of the five materials used in this study.

    Properties Sand (Sand + 10%fines) (Sand + 20%fines) (Sand + 30%fines) Fines

    Plastic Index Non-

    plastic Non-plastic Non-plastic Non-plastic

    Non-

    plastic

    Specific gravity 2.65 2.56 2.52 2.44 2.20

    Gravel (75 mm <

    diameter < 4.75

    mm) – (%)

    0 0 0 0 0

    Coarse sand

    (4.75mm < diameter

    < 2 mm) – (%)

    0 0 0 0 0

    Medium sand (2

    mm < diameter <

    0.425 mm) – (%)

    0 0 0 0 0

    Fine sand (0.075

    mm < diameter <

    0.425 mm) – (%)

    97 87 77 67 0

    Silt (0.002 mm <

    diameter < 0.075

    mm) – (%)

    3 12 21 30 91

    Clay (diameter <

    0.002 mm) – (%) 0 1 2 3 9

    D60 (mm) 0.16 0.15 0.14 0.12 0.03

    Mean particle

    diameter, D50 (mm) 0.14 0.13 0.12 0.10 0.023

    D30 (mm) 0.11 0.10 0.08 0.06 0.019

    Equivalent particle

    diameter, D10 (mm) 0.08 0.07 0.02 0.016 0.006

    Cc 0.9 1.0 2.8 2.0 2.2

    Cu 1.9 2.2 7.3 7.7 4.3

    USCS classification

    (ASTM 2017)

    Poorly

    graded

    sand

    (SP)

    Silty sand (SM) Silty sand (SM) Silty sand (SM) Silt

    (ML)

    TABLE 2. Characteristics of the specimens used in the durability tests.

    Dry unit weight (kN/m³) 15.5 16.5

    Fines content (%) 30 10, 20, 30

    Cement content (%) 11 5, 8, 11

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  • Accepted manuscript doi: 10.1680/jgeen.18.00243

    FIGURE CAPTIONS

    FIGURE 1: Particle size distributions of the five samples used in this study.

    FIGURE 2: Standard-energy compaction curve of Osório sand with 10% of fines.

    FIGURE 3: (a) Splitting tensile strength (qt) versus η/(Civ)0.28

    for 5, 8 and 11% of Portland

    cement and γd = 14.5, 15.5 and 16.5 kN/m3; (b) Splitting tensile strength (qt) versus

    η/Civ for 5, 8 and 11% of Portland cement and γd = 14.5, 15.5 and 16.5 kN/m3.

    FIGURE 4: Parameter K versus fines content.

    FIGURE 5: Accumulated loss of mass (ALM) versus number of wetting-drying cycles of

    sands with (a) 10, 20 and 30% of fines, d = 16.5 kN/m3, and 11% of Portland cement,

    (b) 30% of fines, d = 16.5 kN/m3 and 5, 8 and 11% of Portland cement, and (c) 30%

    of fines, and d equal to 15.5 or 16.5 kN/m3 and 11% of Portland cement.

    FIGURE 6: Maximum shear modulus at small strains (G0) versus number of wetting-drying

    cycles for sands with (a) 10, 20 and 30% of fines, d = 16.5 kN/m3, and 11% of

    Portland cement (including schematic particle model), (b) 30% of fines, d = 16.5

    kN/m3 and 5, 8 and 11% of Portland cement and (c) 30% of fines, d equal to 15.5

    kN/m3 or 16.5 kN/m

    3 and 11% of Portland cement.

    FIGURE 7: Variation of splitting tensile strength (qt) versus number of wetting-drying

    cycles for sands with 10 and 30% of fines, d = 16.5 kN/m3, and 11% of Portland

    cement.

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  • Accepted manuscript doi: 10.1680/jgeen.18.00243

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  • Accepted manuscript doi: 10.1680/jgeen.18.00243

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  • Accepted manuscript doi: 10.1680/jgeen.18.00243

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  • Accepted manuscript doi: 10.1680/jgeen.18.00243

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  • Accepted manuscript doi: 10.1680/jgeen.18.00243

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  • Accepted manuscript doi: 10.1680/jgeen.18.00243

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  • Accepted manuscript doi: 10.1680/jgeen.18.00243

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