Flexural Strength Prediction Models for Soil–Cement from Unconfined Compressive Strength at Seven Days

Abstract

Soil–cement is an environmentally friendly road construction technique for base and subbase materials, which allows employing soils placed in the right-of-way of the road or in the surroundings, by improving its engineering properties. With this technique, it is possible to reduce the over-exploitation of quarries, the necessity of landfills and the pollutant gas emission due to the reduction of aggregate fabrication and transport. The manufacturing of soil–cement is generally controlled by means of the Uniaxial Compressive Strength (UCS) test at seven days, according to the regulations of each country. Nonetheless, one of the properties that best defines the performance of soil–cement is the Flexural Strength (FS) at long term, usually at 90 days. The aim of this paper is to develop new equations to correlate the UCS and the FS at long term and the UCS at seven days and at 90 days. Obtained results validate the proposed models and, hence, the flexural strength can be predicted from the Uniaxial Compressive Strength at seven days, allowing, if necessary, correcting measures (recalculation or rejection) in early stages of the curing time to be taken.