Poster 23-21

Use of Ground Penetrating Radar to Detect Cement Content in Cement-Stabilized Subgrade

PI: S. Sonny Kim

Co-PI(s): Bjorn Birgisson

Institution(s): University of Georgia

Abstract

Cement stabilization has been successfully used to improve poor-quality subgrade soils by increasing the soil support to remedy these soils useful for pavement construction. Cement stabilization has the potential to reduce initial construction costs through improved subgrade stability in the pavement structure. Cement stabilization also provides greater long-term stability of the pavement structure and lower pavement life-cycle costs through reduced pavement maintenance. Unfortunately, flexible pavements over cement-stabilized subgrade are experiencing reflective cracking originating from the shrinkage cracks on top of cement-stabilized subgrade due to poor construction. In this study, ground-penetrating radar (GPR) was used to capture the inconsistent layer thickness of cement-stabilized subgrade and its cement content. The results show that GPR is capable of capturing different dielectric constants along with different percent cement contents in subgrade soils.

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