Civil Insight: A Technical Magazine Volume 3 | Page 19

Manandhar S. and Karki S.S.
Civil Insight (2019) 15-20
unable to represent the strength behaviors of the cement-treated ground. The performances of the cement
decreases when cement content is excessively increased due to the increment of the capillary porosity
described by Su and Miao (2003).
5) Conclusions
The Ratmate soil (red soil) is a clayey silt (ML) with low plasticity in which cement content was added in
3, 5, 7, and 10% proportions using Portland Pozzolana Cement (PPC) of Standard Type-I from Jagadamba
Cement Company in Nepal. The unconfined compressive strengths (UCS) before and after cement
treatments at 7, 14, and 28 curing days were determined at its maximum dry density and optimum moisture
contents. Hence, performing the experiments in the laboratory, the following main conclusions can be
drawn:
x
x
x
x
The UCS value of Ramate soil is increased dramatically when optimum percentage of cement was
employed. The UCS value reached up to 1871.96kPa when 7% cement was added in the red soil
and cured for 28 days.
The optimum amount of cement provides good bearing behaviors to the treated soil; when the
cement content is exceeded, the strength value governed by UCS value were decreased. In the UCS
sample small micro cracks were formed while performing the test adding 10% cement. This may
be due to the presence of high capillary porosity of cement.
The soil having prescribed index and mechanical properties performed well at 7% cement content.
The maximum dry density is increased up to 2.297gm/cm 3 from 1.580gm/cm 3 with 7% cement
content cured for 28 days.
Acknowledgements
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to International Centre for Geotechnical Services (ICGS) for
providing necessary laboratory facilities and financial supports under research and development (R&D)
section. I am indebted to Prof. Dr. Lalu Prasad Paudel, Prof. Dennes T. Bargado and Prof. Suksan
Horpibulsuk for their incredible helps and inspiration during this research.
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