Experimental Investigation of Cement Treated Sand Behavior Under Triaxial Test

In this paper, an experimental investigation of cement treated sand is performed under triaxial tests in order to quantify the effects of cementation on the stress–strain behavior, stiffness and shear strength. Samples were cured up to 180 days. The results show that the stress–strain behavior of cemented sands is nonlinear with contractive–dilative stages. The stress–strain response is strongly influenced by effective confining pressure and cement content. Stiffness and strength are greatly improved by an increase in binder content. An increase of the angle of shearing resistance and cohesion intercept with increasing cement content is observed consistently. Brittle behavior is observed at low confining pressure and high cement content. After yielding, the increase in the dilatancy accelerates. Two competing related processes determine the peak strength: Bond breakages cause a strength reduction but the associated dilatancy leads to a strength increase. This finding and the experimental observation that the dilatancy at the peak state increases with increasing cement content explain why the measured peak-state strength parameters, c′ and φ_p′, are relevant to the binder content.