Evaluation of the mechanical behavior of mixtures of soil-cement and phosphogypsum and cement for use in the road construction

Author(s)

Everton Bezerra Parente

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: São Carlos.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Escola de Engenharia de São Carlos (EESC/SBD)
• Defense date: 2002-02-21

Examining board members

Alexandre Benetti Parreira; José Tadeu Balbo; Jorge Barbosa Soares

• Advisor: Alexandre Benetti Parreira

Abstract

This work presents the results of a research whose main objective is to evaluate the mechanical behavior of soil-cement and phosphogypsum and cement mixtures for the construction of road bases. The soil-cement is a traditional useful material in pavement construction. The in composition of the soil-cement mixtures were used. Two different soils with same HRB and USCS classifications, but considered, respectively, of lateritic and non-Iateritic behavior, according to the MCT classification. The phosphogypsum is a solid by-product of the fertilizers production, it\'s an aggressive element to the environment due to its acid nature and for containing radioactive elements and heavy metals. For being unstable in the presence of water, this material should be stabilized with cement for use in pavements. The samples of these mixtures were submitted to tests of unconfined compressive strength, diametral compression and cyclic triaxial loading test. In the tests of unconfined compressive strength and diametral compression, half of the specimens were submitted previous immersion in water for four hours before the test and the other half was tested without immersion. The specimens with cement content of 4, 7 and 10% were compacted using the normal energy of Proctor test and cured during 3, 7 and 28 days. For the phosphogypsum and cement mixtures were just used cement content of 7 and 10%. It was observed that higher values of time of cure and cement content led to higher strength and stiffness values. Tests performed after immersion in water presented strength values for the unconfined compressive and diametral compression strength than those obtained without immersion. The results of the cyclic triaxial loading test show the predominant effect of the deviateric stress in the value of the resilience modulus when compared with the effect of the confinement tension. It was also concluded that the mixtures composed with lateritic behavior soil presented better performance than mixtures composed with non lateritic behavior soil.Comparing the mechanical performance of the soil-cement mixtures with the one of the phosphogypsum and cement mixtures, the last one presents strength and stiffness signiflcantly lower. However, the performance of the phosphogypsum and cement mixtures, mainly concerning the deformability, is comparable to the performance of materials employed in paving, as some soil stabilized bases. (AU)