Humidity Controlled Accelerated Curing (HCAC) of Cement Stabilized Soils
Additional Funding Sources
The project described was supported by Montana Department of Transportation.
Abstract
Several accelerated curing protocols for cement stabilized soils have been investigated to expedite the commonly used 7-day curing period. These procedures include submerging the specimen to account for loss in moisture content due to higher temperature curing, which leads to variability in regaining the original moisture content throughout the specimen. The Humidity Controlled Accelerated Curing protocol (HCAC) was established to identify the equivalent 60°C and 100% humidity curing duration that will provide the equivalent unconfined compressive strength (UCS) of a 7-day, 23°C curing period at 100% humidity. The proposed curing procedure involves the stabilized specimens to be placed in a 95±5% humidity, 60°C environment for 24-hours which maintains the original moisture content throughout the specimen. UCS tests were performed on the specimens subjected to HCAC, traditional accelerated curing, and 7-day, 23°C curing period at 100% humidity. The results of the UCS, water content and tangent modulus show that the HCAC approach produces results more similar to the 7-day, 23°C at 100% humidity curing procedure than the traditional accelerated curing.
Humidity Controlled Accelerated Curing (HCAC) of Cement Stabilized Soils
Several accelerated curing protocols for cement stabilized soils have been investigated to expedite the commonly used 7-day curing period. These procedures include submerging the specimen to account for loss in moisture content due to higher temperature curing, which leads to variability in regaining the original moisture content throughout the specimen. The Humidity Controlled Accelerated Curing protocol (HCAC) was established to identify the equivalent 60°C and 100% humidity curing duration that will provide the equivalent unconfined compressive strength (UCS) of a 7-day, 23°C curing period at 100% humidity. The proposed curing procedure involves the stabilized specimens to be placed in a 95±5% humidity, 60°C environment for 24-hours which maintains the original moisture content throughout the specimen. UCS tests were performed on the specimens subjected to HCAC, traditional accelerated curing, and 7-day, 23°C curing period at 100% humidity. The results of the UCS, water content and tangent modulus show that the HCAC approach produces results more similar to the 7-day, 23°C at 100% humidity curing procedure than the traditional accelerated curing.
Comments
W15