Improvement of Sub-Standard Lateritic Soil with Cement-Polymer Mixtures

Abstract

This paper presents the improvement of sub-standard lateritic soil using cement-polymer mixtures. Mixing polymer into cement to create such a cement-polymer mixture could cause the cement use reduction in the cement stabilization technique for roadway applications. Cement as a soil stabilizing agent has been popularly used to stabilize any sub-standard materials for the road. However, the cement-stabilized material has relatively less flexural strength and still prone to have a moisture sensitivity characteristic even it can provide good compressive strength. This study aims to determine a proper ratio between cement and polymer for using as a stabilizing agent for sub-standard lateritic soil. This polymer would assist gaining more flexural strength and less moisture sensitivity for such cement-stabilized lateritic soil. In this study, the cement-polymer mixtures in forms of the paste were investigated with varying the polymer content of 0, 5, 10, 15, 20% by dry mass of cement. Cement-polymer paste samples were cured for 7 and 28 days before a series of the compressive strength tests, the flexural strength tests, and the water absorption tests. The results revealed that the 10% polymer content of cement can provide the best compressive strength with better flexural strength and least water absorption compared to other mixtures. With this proper ratio, it can be further used in stabilizing the sub-standard lateritic soil for roadway application.