Scale Effects in the Indirect Tensile and Unconfined Compressive Strength Tests of Cement-Stabilized Base Materials

摘要

The primary objective of this paper is to investigate the relevance and to quantify the influence of the specimen dimensions on the tensile and compressive behaviour of the cement treated base materials. This objective was achieved by post processing of laboratory measured properties of over 50 fabricated specimens coupled with numerical simulations to quantify the compressive and tensile strength properties in the UCS and IDT tests. The trend analysis of laboratory data underscored the influence of the specimen dimension, characterized by length to diameter (L/D) ratio on the strength properties of cement treated reclaimed and virgin mixes. Additionally, several numerical simulations were conducted to study the role of the bearing strip on the stress distributions in the IDT tests. The simulation results were further validated by laboratory tests to demonstrate the simultaneous influence of the (L/D) and loading strip on the tensile strength of the cement treated materials. Primarily, the UCS test results indicated that the unconfined compressive strength decreases appreciably with increasing length-to-diameter (L/D) ratio. The laboratory validated results showed that the adjustment of the loading strip can potentially minimize the variation in the tensile strength of cement treated materials in the IDT tests.