Studies on Soil Cements : 2 — Physicochemical Properties of the Hardened Soil Cement Pastes.

Abstract

Various hardened soil-cement pastes were prepared from dry mixtures of montmorillonite clay and portland cement clinker by using different W/C ratios of 0.20, 40, 0.60 and 0.80 and cured in air for various ages. Compressive strength tests were done on the hardened fresh pastes, while the nitrogen adsorption studies were carried out on the D-dried specimens. The variations in compressive strength could be related to the physicochemical properties and the pore structure of the hardened pastes. The optimum W/C ratio suitable for any given soil-cement mixture was regarded as the ratio which yields a hardened paste showing no regression in compressive strength at the various curing ages.