QUALITY MANAGEMENT OF STABILIZED SOIL CONSTRUCTION USING LAB AND FIELD SEISMIC TESTING

Current pavement design practice for stabilized soils specifies a 28-day modulus and stiffness value. There is a need to evaluate performance after 5 to 7 days to ensure efficient constructability. There is a large disconnect between quality management programs not only for design and construction, but between lab and field evaluations during construction. The difference in design and measured parameters, lab and field, for performance evaluation does not permit a direct comparison. Current quality management techniques do not permit assessment of the true performance of the pavement construction. Seismic wave based testing offers considerable potential for quality assessment of stabilized soils. Surface wave analysis can be used to assess low-strain or seismic modulus of stabilized soils in the field while travel-time analysis and free-free resonance testing can be used to estimate seismic modulus of laboratory specimens. Lab and field seismic moduli are directly related, thus permitting seismic analysis to bridge the gaps encountered by current quality management techniques. This paper presents lab and field seismic testing protocol and results which indicate its effectiveness as a combined quality management technique.