Fundamental Characteristics of Cement-Admixed Clay in Deep Mixing

This paper examines the compressibility and strength characteristics of high water content cement-admixed clay in deep mixing applications. During curing time, both cement content and total clay water content of the clay–water–cement mixture significantly affect the strength and compressibility of the resulting stabilized clay. To ensure optimum improvement, the selection of an appropriate total clay water content for a mixture with a certain cement content is crucial. Furthermore, the fundamental parameters such as the ratio of after-curing void ratio (eot) and cement content (Aw) have been found sufficient to characterize the strength and compressibility of cement-admixed clay. The results of unconfined compression and consolidated–undrained tests have proven that the ratio eot∕Aw combines together the influences of clay water content, cement content, and curing time as well as curing pressure on the strength of cement-admixed clay. In addition, useful empirical relationships on deep mixing application are presented.