Stiffness of artificially cemented sands: insight on characterisation through empirical power relationships

Empirical power relationships linking the initial small strain shear stiffness of artificially cemented soils under unconfined loading conditions to a porosity over cement content ratio factor are convenient relations for the design and control quality of such reinforced soils. This paper will present a theoretical justification for the existence of such relationships and will demonstrate that they can be obtained through manipulation and simplification of well-established Hardin’s type formulas for cemented soils. In the process, the meaning and significance of the terms composing the empirical power relationships will be discussed. The proposed theoretical developments are validated against published data of the initial shear stiffness of two different artificially cemented soils under unconfined loading conditions.