Strength development and prediction of calcium sulfoaluminate treated sand with optimized gypsum for replacing OPC in ground improvement

Abstract

For ground improvement, the use of calcium sulfoaluminate (CSA) cement, which has lower carbon footprint is examined as an alternate to ordinary Portland cement (OPC). The use of additives like lime or fly ash results only in partial replacement of OPC, while complete replacement of OPC is possible using CSA binder. For CSA-treated sand, the optimized gypsum content is experimentally determined as 30% since it enables high initial strength and durable strength gain. In both wet and dry curing, CSA-treated sand has significantly high strength gain compared to OPC. Finally, a unified strength prediction model for cemented soil is proposed for wide ranges of cement and soil types.