STUDY ON STRENGTH BEHAVIOUR OF CEMENT STABILISED CLAYEY SOILS UNDER VARIOUS CURING CONDITIONS BY EXPERIMENTAL AND DATA-DRIVEN METHODS

Abstract

The current research investigated the influence of soil type, curing time and temperature on strength (qu) development of cement stabilised clayey soil by experimental and data-driven methods. First, the study found that liquid limit, activity, and intergranular void ratio are promising factors to incorporate soil type effect on qu. Besides, a ‘3-phase’ curing time effect on qu development was observed. A novel model adopting lognormal distribution was proposed accordingly. Furthermore, elevated curing temperature was found to enhance early-stage qu but impose different influences on long-term qu development, which could be attributed to pozzolanic reaction and the presence of fine-grained clay particles. A generic method of incorporating temperature effect on cementitious materials was proposed with Arrhenius’ law. Last but not least, the current research explored the application of data-driven methods to predict and interpret qu development. Data-driven methods were found to have great potential in solving and understanding complex engineering problems.