cement-bound road materials: strength and elastic properties measured in the laboratory

the report covers work carried out at the university of surrey on a contract awarded by the transport and road research laboratory for a laboratory study of the strength and elastic properties of cement-bound road materials. details are presented of tests carried out to determine the strength and elastic properties of cement-bound materials ranging from lean concrete to fine-grained soil-cement, emphasis being placed on their behaviour in uni-axial tension. a limited study of fatigue behaviour in tension is also reported. the principal conclusions are that the strength in tension and in flexure are broadly related to compressive strength, that the moduli in tension and in compression are effectively equal and that, although strength may be related to modulus for each material, there is no unique relationship between modulus and strength. examination of the relative values of modulus and of strength suggests that cracking in cement-bound layers is more likely to occur at early ages, at low cement contents and, for tests undertaken only on lean concrete, at higher mix water contents. crack susceptibility is also shown to be influenced by the type of material processed and is more likely to occur in poorly compacted material.(a)