Effect of Cement on the Drying–Wetting Paths and on Some Engineering Properties of a Compacted Natural Clay from Oran, Algeria

The purpose of this paper is to study the effect of cement on the consistency limits, drying–wetting paths, hydraulic conductivity measured by oedometer and triaxial tests in the short and long terms, and durability during wetting and drying cycles on untreated and treated samples. The compressive strength of the soil was also measured at the end of the durability tests. The study was carried out on samples of the natural swelling clay of Mers El Kebir (Algeria) compacted under Standard Optimum Proctor conditions and treated with different percentages of cement. The results show that the liquid limit decreases, and the plastic limit increases with the amount of cement. In the case of the drying–wetting path, a decrease in the shrinkage limit suction and an increase in the shrinkage limit water content were observed when the percentage of added cement increased. The tests conducted to evaluate the hydraulic conductivity of the treated soil show an increase in permeability just after the treatment, followed a decrease as a function of the curing time. From the durability tests, it could be observed that the clayey soils stabilized by cement exhibit high performance and survive 12 cycles of wetting–drying testing.