Soil cement is a construction material, a mix of pulverized natural soil with small amount of portland cement and water, usually processed in a tumble, compacted to high density. Hard, semi-rigid durable material is formed by hydration of the cement particles.
Soil cement is frequently used as a construction material for pipe bedding, slope protection, and road construction as a subbase layer reinforcing and protecting the subgrade. It has good compressive and shear strength, but is brittle and has low tensile strength, so it is prone to forming cracks.
Soil cement mixtures differs from Portland cement concrete in the amount of paste (cement-water mixture). While in Portland cement concretes the paste coats all aggregate particles and binds them together, in soil cements the amount of cement is lower and therefore there are voids left and the result is a cement matrix with nodules of uncemented material.
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Famous quotes containing the words soil and/or cement:
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Healing and poisonous herbs the same soil bears,
And rose and nettle oft grow side by side.”
—Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso)
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—Anna Garlin Spencer (1851–1931)