Dynamic shear strength of improved soil with B-type blast-furnace cement

It is attempted to apply the improved soil using cement materials as the hardening agent to the foundation ground of the important buildings for electric power plants. The current design procedure of the improved ground is based on the static strength such as the unconfined compressive strength of the improved soil. However, it is not clear whether the static strength is relevant to seismic designs where the effects of the cyclic loading induced by the earthquake shall be considered. Hence, the authors studied the dynamic strength of the improved soil in comparison with the static strength, by executing a series of the cyclic triaxial tests with different loading frequencies and the consolidated-undrained triaxial compression tests (CUB tests) with different axial strain rates. The tested soil specimens which have the unconfined compressive strength of about 5 MPa were made in laboratory using the mixture of a dredged marine clayey soil, a B-type blast-furnace cement (300 kg/m3) and water. Both of the CUB tests and the cyclic triaxial tests showed similar results with respect to the relationships between the strength and the strain rate. The larger the compressive strain rate was, the higher the strength became. It is concluded that the static strength could be used as a sufficiently safe value in seismic designs since the strain rate of the cyclic loading induced by the earthquake is much larger than that of the static test. (author)