Mechanical properties of cement treated zinc-contaminated loess

A series of studies were carried out to examine the strength and stress-strain characteristics of cement-treated heavy metal-contaminated soil, with an emphasis on the actual engineering issue of heavy metal-contaminated loess and its deterioration.The research focused specifically on cement-treated zinc-contaminated loess, taking into consideration the influence of cement content and curing time. The experiments aimed to analyze the changes in the stress-strain curve, unconfined compressive strength, failure strain, and deformation modulus, and to construct a model of the stress-strain behavior under unconfined conditions. Additionally, a stress-strain model was developed for cement-treated zinc-contaminated loess under no-lateral limit conditions.The study reveals that the stress-strain curve of cement-treated zinc-contaminated loess exhibits strong softening behavior, resulting in brittle specimen damage. The curve can be divided into four stages: elasticity, elastic-plasticity, stress reduction, and residual stability. Furthermore, the study finds that with an increase in curing time and cement content, the unconfined compressive strength improves while the failure strain generally decreases. The deformation modulus shows a non-linear relationship with the unconfined compressive strength. A stress-strain model is constructed to describe the non-linear relationships among curing time, cement content, deformation modulus, and unconfined compressive strength accurately. Specifically, the model considers the effects of curing time and cement content on the stress-strain behavior of cement-treated zinc-contaminated loess under uniaxial pressure.Overall, these findings contribute to understanding the strength and stress-strain characteristics of cement-treated zinc-contaminated loess and provide valuable insights for addressing heavy metal contamination in loess engineering applications.