THE EFFECT OF MOISTURE CONTENT ON UNCONFINED COMPRESSIVE STRENGTH OF STATIC AND DYNAMIC COMPACTED SOIL-CEMENT SPECIMENS

Abstract

In this research, Khon Kaen loess soil is used to improve by compaction loess with 3-6% cement by weight in static and dynamic methods of preparation. The objective is to determine the effect of moisture content on unconfined compressive strength (UCS). In case of the static sample preparation, the results from the effect of the moisture content showed the highest UCS when the moisture content is less than the optimum moisture content (OMC) minus 2 percent for 3-7 days curing time. But for 14 and 28 days curing time, mixing close to OMC in the dry side should be used to get the highest UCS. When considering the UCS of the samples that were soaked in water for 2 hours before the test, the strength was 12-47% lower. The lower moisture content as the dry side of OMC, the more reduction of UCS from soaking for all cement content.  The mixture at the higher cement content, the less reduction of UCS from soaking and also more decreasing the influence of water content on reduction of UCS from soaking. The results from the dynamic sample preparation showed that the compressive strength of soil cement decreased by 11-34% of the results from the static sample preparation due to the efficiency of the mixing.