Improving the strength of the Nha Be soft soils by Portland cement

The article presents the increase of strengths of the soft soils in the Nha Be corresponding with the increase of contents of Portland cement. The Holocene sediments are soft to very soft with water content being over 90%, low strength, bearing capacity being less than 1 kG/cm and very large consolidated settlements. Therefore, the soft ground needs to be improved. The cement used for improving the soft soils could seem to be effective like high strength increase in a short time. The soil samples were mixed with the cement in the contents such as 120kg/m2, and 200kg/m3, 130kg/m3 , 140kg/m3, respectively. The mixed specimens were kept for 7 and 28 days. The results indicated that the appropriate cement content is 130 kg/m3 and the strengths of the mixed soils were double that of the undisturbed soils. Keywords: Soft soil, improvement, Portland cement, water content.