Investigation of factors influencing design and performance of soil cement pavement layers

Soil cement has been used as a means of stabilizing highway pavement layers, airport pavement layers, embankments, and foundations for decades. The technology uses a compacted mixture of soil, cement, and water to form a hardened material layer that has specific strength and durability properties. Even after decades of utilization, however, design of soil cement pavement layers has room for enhancement.;This thesis investigates factors that influence the design and performance of cement stabilized pavement layers in Mississippi. A survey was conducted to collect information about soil cement design procedures from across the U.S. The factors examined in the laboratory investigation are strength gain with time, unconfined compressive strength variability, elastic modulus, and wheel tracking. More than 1,100 specimens were tested to determine the influence of these factors on the design and performance of soil cement pavement layers.