Effect of moulding water content on strength characteristics of a cement-stabilized granular lateritic soil

Performance of the cement-stabilized soils primarily depends on the soil type, cement quantity, moulding moisture content and ambient temperature. Control of the moulding moisture content and curing temperature are the challenges for most of the pavement engineers as these play a significant role in the strength development of stabilized soils. In the work presented here, an effort has been made to study the effect of the moulding water content on compressive strength and flexural strength of a stabilized granular lateritic soil collected from the eastern part of India. A detailed experimental programme was conducted, which involves various strength tests such as unconfined compressive strength test, California bearing ratio test and four-point flexure test. Microstructural analysis was also conducted using a scanning electron microscope and X-ray diffraction techniques to study the mechanism behind the variation of strength with varying moisture contents. Effect of moisture was also investigated through measurement of residual compressive strength. It is observed that compressive strength decreases with an increase in the moulding moisture content; however, the flexural strength increases with an increase in moulding moisture content within the testing range of moisture content around optimum moisture content (OMC), i.e. OMC-2% to OMC+2%.