An investigation into the relationship between strength properties of sandstone aggregate stabilised with cement and polymer emulsion for road sub-base applications

The splitting tensile strengths of cement- and polymer-stabilised road aggregate sub-base of marginal quality are of considerable importance in pavement design. There is still limited information concerning the splitting tensile strengths of polymer- and polymer-cement-stabilised on the sub-base since most of the literature focused on compressive strengths and the relationship between splitting tensile and compressive strengths of cement-stabilised sub-base. This paper models the relationship between the splitting tensile and compressive strengths of sandstone aggregates sub-base samples of marginal quality stabilised with combinations of Portland composite cement (PCC) and styrene-butadiene (SB) latex copolymer (TP). All samples were subjected to 7 days of dry curing before undergoing the splitting and unconfined compression tests. While PCC- and TP+PCC-stabilised samples exhibited linear correlations (R2>0.98) with slopes of 8.3% and 10.6% respectively, TP-stabilised samples exhibited a negative 2nd degree polynomial correlation (R2>0.95). Researchers and practitioners can use these models to determine the corresponding splitting tensile strengths by using measured values of unconfined compressive strengths without conducting indirect tensile tests and vice versa. This approach reduces cost and time of laboratory testing.