Mechanical performance and ultrasonic properties of cemented gangue backfill with admixture of fly ash

Cemented gangue backfill (CGB) is prepared by mixing cement, coal gangue and water. Fly ash from the combustion of coal is commonly utilized as admixture to improve the mechanical performance and fluidity of CGB, as well as to reduce cost of preparing CGB. Uniaxial compressive strength (UCS) is one of the most commonly used indicators for evaluating the mechanical performance of CGB. Ultrasonic testing, which is a non-destructive measurement, can also be applied to determine the mechanical properties of cementitious materials such as CGB. So this paper investigates the UCS and ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV) of CGB prepared at different fly ash dosage (19, 20 and 21 wt.%) and solid content (76.5, 77.5 and 78.5 wt.%), versus curing periods of 3-28 days. The UCS and UPV values of CGB increase with increasing fly ash dosage and solid content. In order to find out the correlation between the UCS and UPV values of CGB, different types (linear, logarithmic, exponential and power) of curve fitting are conducted on the CGB samples made at different solid content. An exponential relationship with the correlation coefficient of 0.959 appears to exist between the UCS and UPV for CGB samples. This obtained exponential relationship is validated to be available by performing the t- and F- tests. The results acquired by this paper are capable of providing guidance for utilizing UPV test to estimate the strength of underground CGB structures.