The role of curing period on the engineering characteristics of a cement-stabilized soil

Very often, pavements constructed in an economical manner or matching surface elevations of adjacent lanes cannot be designed for the soil conditions of the existing subgrade. Therefore, there is a need to stabilize the soil with an appropriate chemical substance in order to increase its strength to a satisfactory level. For the enhancement of subgrade soil strength characteristics, lime and cement are the most commonly used stabilizers. An experimental program was directed to the evaluation of a clayey soil and its mixtures with different cement contents performing tests on the index properties, the moisture-density relation, the unconfined compressive strength, and linear shrinkage. There is a definite improvement in strength. The time interval used to cure the prepared specimens affected positively both strength and plasticity features of the mixtures. A comparison with mixtures of the same soil with lime has been made, because of the wide use of lime in clay soil stabilization projects.