Sulfate Resistant Cement and Barium Components Effects on Soil-Cement Strength under Sulfate Attack –A Laboratory Study

In coastal industrial areas, in addition to the presence of loose soil, sulfate attack on soil improvement elements, such as soil-cement, is a double problem. Generally, the use of type V cement is recommended as one of the methods to reduce the detrimental effects. Considering the limited resources of this type of cement, firstly to determin the relationship between the cement content and the strength obtained in sulfated environments is one of the important engineering question in this field and secondly, as an alternative option, the use of type II cement which is more available, is suggested to use in combination with suitable additives. The present study pursues the above two goals by making cylindrical soil-cement specimens with sand, water and Portland sulfate resistant cements. Sodium sulfate is used as the sulfate in soil and water. In the research, first of all, the relation between type V cement content and unconfined compressive strength of soil-cement is obtained at 0% to 5% sulfate concentration, which results in a cement content of 400 kg/m3 completely limited the sulfate attack effects in a sulfate concentration of 2%. Secondly, the combination of type II cement with barium chloride and hydroxide was tested. The related results show that the combination of type II cement with barium chloride and hydroxide had higher strengths, about 2.7 to 3.3 times, respectively (in 362 days), than the soil-cement containing type V cement.