Durability against wetting-drying cycles of sustainable Lightweight Cellular Cemented construction material comprising clay and fly ash wastes

The viability of using waste materials such as clay and fly ash (FA) for developing a sustainable Lightweight Cellular Cemented (LCC) construction material is investigated in this paper. LCC clay has a wide range of applications in infrastructure rehabilitation as well as in the construction of new facilities. The durability against wetting-drying (w-d) cycles is an important parameter for service life design of LCC clay; however, studies on this aspect to date are very limited. The role of cemented soil structure (fabric and cementation bond) on w-d cycle strength of LCC clay are investigated, analyzed and presented in this paper. The strength reduction with increasing number of w-d is attributed to degradation of the cemented structure. The degradation index, qualifying the rate of degradation with number of w-d cycles, is proposed in term of initial soaked strength (without w-d cycle). Using the degradation index, the predictive w-d cycle strength equation at different number of w-d cycles is furthermore proposed. The applicability of the proposed equation is validated using a separate test data. This approach of predicting w-d cycle strength is beneficial from both engineering and economic points of view.