Characterisation of arch expansion of cement stabilised road bases

ABSTRACT

The arch expansion of cement stabilised base materials has become increasingly serious due to the current design guideline, typical climate and geological environment in the west of China. This research systematically investigated the influence of different factors on temperature expansion and also salt expansion of the cement stabilised base course through laboratory-scale slab tests and microscopic tests. Optimised gradation type of aggregate and other design indexes were proposed. The radial basis function network (RBFN) was used to establish a predication model of the amount of arch expansion. The micro-mechanism of arch expansion was further detailed by scanning images. The test results showed that the temperature expansion occurred most significantly during 20°C to 40°C and the optimised gradation could alleviate the arch expansion effectively. In the range of 20°C to 30°C, the arch expansion of cement stabilised materials was dominated by temperature expansion, and the expansion was mainly salt expansion between −10°C and 0°C. It is suggested that reasonable prevention measures should be taken considering different environmental factors by the inhibition weight 1/d_i, and thus the most effective preventing methods of arch expansion would be taken.

KEYWORDS:

• Cement-stabilised base
• arch expansion
• laboratory-scale slab test
• RBFN
• CT scanning test
• SEM test

Acknowledgements

Thanks to all those who have provided guidance and assistance for this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work is part of a research project on the Key Technology Project of the Transportation Industry in Ministry of Transport of China (program number 2018-MS1-025), Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Transportation Department Science and Technology Project (program number 2018-6) and Tianshan youth program funds for outstanding Scientific Talents (program number 2018Q053). That sponsorship and interest are gratefully acknowledged.