How is cement content determined for soil-cement slope protection applications?
For early soil-cement upstream slope protection applications an adequate cement content was determined using the standard wet-dry (ASTM D559) and the freeze-thaw (ASTM D560) durability tests. Both tests take about a month to complete and tend to be expensive. Based on experience and laboratory tests, researchers found that for granular soils with the same cement content, the freeze-thaw test consistently produces greater weight loss than the wet-dry test. Therefore, for granular soils, good durability results could be obtained based on the freeze-thaw test alone. Today, however, most cement content determinations use compressive strength as the basic design criterion. PCA developed a relationship between 7-day compressive strength and durability based on more than 1,700 sets of tests.
