Cementitiously stabilized soils or soil-cement is a commonly used solution for highway subbase and base course construction, particularly in regions where higher quality soils and aggregates are limited. Even though the utilization of soil-cement as an engineered material has been around for over 70 years, there is still room for advancement with respect to characterizing the performance of these mixtures both in the laboratory and in the field. The first objective of this thesis was to examine the Mississippi Department of Transportation soil-cement database to determine current soil-cement practices in Mississippi. The second objective of this thesis was to develop thermal measurement techniques to characterize compacted cementitiously stabilized soils. Over 800 compacted specimens were prepared and tested to investigate the feasibility and usefulness of performing thermal measurements on soil-cement mixtures.

The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air conditioning Engineers suggests that the building sector represents over 30 percent of our national energy consumption (Parsons, R., 2001). Embodied energy in components of building construction can represent as much as five to ten years of operating energy. Building materials such as concrete, steel and glass require significant amounts of energy for production, and therefore are important when calculating embodied energy in buildings (Keable, 2007; Rypkema, 2007). Because of the relatively large area and volume of related components, the building enclosure system represents a major factor when calculating embodied energy. Alternative materials could be incorporated by adapting traditional and vernacular building approaches to today's standards, for example, compressing soil blocks for use as external walls in buildings that can be applicable to almost any climate including rainforests and cold climates. As an alternative to high-embodied energy materials used for enclosure systems, compacted earth-based enclosure systems may be a viable option, particularly if developed and applied as a pre-manufactured modular system. This study seeks to both quantitatively and qualitatively explore the potential development of earth-based building curtain wall systems. Using modified ASTM test protocols for building enclosure systems and components, alternative earth-based panels were compared. The results suggest that earth-based panels may be a viable option for curtain wall systems but its performance is highly dependent on the composition of the panels. The results of the tests are summarized. / Master of Science