Mix design charts for lightweight cellular cemented Bangkok clay

Highlight
• Develop sustainable lightweight pavement materials from excavated clay.
• Examine role of cement and air contents and curing time.
• Investigate unit weight and strength of LCC Bangkok clay.
• Develop mix design charts for LLC subgrade, selected materials and subbase.

This research investigates unit weight and strength development over curing time of Lightweight Cellular Cemented (LCC) Bangkok clay with various cement contents between 100 and 250 kg/m3 and the air foam contents between 0 and 50% of the volume of wet soil. The studied water content of the LCC Bangkok clay is at workable state, which is 2 times the liquid limit. This research ascertains that the waste excavated soft Bangkok clay can be stabilized by cement and air foam to be a sustainable lightweight pavement material. As the cement content increases and air content decreases, the unit weight and unconfined compressive strength of the LCC Bangkok clay increases. Based on a critical analysis of the test data, mix design charts for lightweight pavement materials specified by the local national road authority, which are subgrade, selected materials and subbase are proposed. These charts are useful as a practical tool for approximating the input air content and cement content to attain the target unit weight for each pavement material.