An Experimental Study on the Mix Proportions, Strength and Densities of Soil-Cement Concrete Substituted Cement with a Granulated Blast Furnace Slag

Abstract

Soil-cement concrete can be manufactured by mixing cohesive soil, sand and cementitous binder with water. In the previous study, we reported the defintion of the saturated surface-dry condition of soil and associated testing methods, a mix design principle of soil-cement concrete with portland cement as a binder. On the basis of the concept of saturated surface-dry condition of soil, this study extends these knowledge over a blast furnace slag-4.2% gypsum binder system and shows that the resulting soil-cement concrete strength can be uniformly described by parameters such as binder-water ratio, cohesive soilsand ratio, binder-mixed soil and density in the same manner when porland cement binder was used. The obtained nomograms was proven to be useful in manufacuturing soil-cement concretes with a designed strength.