Evaluation of stiffness of cement stabilized granular lateritic soils using Ultrasonic Pulse Velocity (UPV) test

Abstract

Modulus of pavement materials is an important input parameter for mechanistic design of pavements. The cement bound pavement layers usually fail in flexure and therefore flexural modulus (FM) should be the appropriate stiffness parameter for analysis of pavements. FM is generally determined using a four point bending test subjected to cyclic loading, but this process is a time consuming exercise and therefore nondestructive methods such as ultrasonic pulse velocity test (UPV) test may be employed for rapid determination of stiffness of these materials. In this study, the constrained moduli values determined using ultrasonic pulse velocity were correlated with Indirect Tensile Strength (IDT) flexural strength (FS) and FM of cement stabilized granular lateritic soil (CLS). Strong relationships were observed between these parameters, which indicates the suitability of employing UPV test for determination FM of CLS samples.