A direct assessment for the stiffness development of artificially cemented clay

This study investigates the stiffness development by bender element tests on specimens of artificially cemented clay, considering the effects of cement content, total water content and curing period. Experimental results indicate that the small-strain shear modulus of cemented clay can be well determined by cement content and total water content. A high cement content or a low total water content results in a stiffness increment of cemented clay. The cementation effect of these two factors is taken into account in this study. However, stiffness of cemented clay increases with curing period; this effect can be well characterised by a hyperbolic function. The function is able to capture both short-term and long-term curing effects. Finally, the effects of mix ratio and curing time are combined, and a predictive model for the stiffness development of cemented clay is devised. The model is validated by experimental results on specimens of cemented clay from various sources.