Analysis of Porosity–Water/Binder Index for Prediction of Strength and Stiffness of Cemented Sands: A Comparative Study

Abstract

Artificial sand cementation improves stability, stiffness, and mechanical strength, making it a critical process in geotechnical applications. This study analyzes the capability of the porosity–water/binding agent index (Formula presented.) to predict cemented sands’ unconfined compressive strength (Formula presented.) and stiffness (Formula presented.). Four Colombian sands, i.e., Luruaco, Medellín, Lorica, and Bogotá (stabilized with Portland cement), and were compared with three Brazilian sands: i.e., Osorio, Porto Alegre, and Rio Pardo were evaluated, stabilized with combinations of carbide lime and glass powder, using varying binder contents and a curing period of seven days subjected to ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV) tests and unconfined compressive strength (UCS) tests. The results indicate that incorporating water content into the index significantly enhances predictive accuracy, achieving R2 values above 0.94 for Colombian sands and considerably better fits for Brazilian sands than the traditional porosity/binder index. This new alternative provides an appropriate parameter for representing the small-strain stiffness and unconfined compressive strength of artificially cemented sands stabilized with various types of binders. Furthermore, the new index proved to be more effective in predicting the behavior of uniform and loose-graded sands, such as those from Bogotá and Lorica, which rely more heavily on binder volume and water content to achieve greater strength and stiffness. Lastly, the predictive model, validated against experimental results, achieved reliability indices (R2) of 0.9791 for stiffness and 0.9799 for strength prediction.