Abstract: The naturally cemented calcareous soil is a carbonate soil or rock cemented by high-magnesium calcite or aragonite. It usually contains a large portion of coral and other tropical marine organism. Its unique engineering properties often result in troubles and difficulties in the geotechnical design and foundation construction. Its characteristics also attract research and experimental interests of many researchers. This paper presents state-of-the-art review of developments of the laboratory tests on both naturally and artificially cemented calcareous soils as well as the sample preparation techniques of artificially cemented soils. The general stress-strain behaviors of the cemented calcareous samples and factors that might affect its characteristics, such as confining pressure, initial sample density, and degree of cementation, are also summarized. The research work that could be improved is also proposed with an objective of providing a research guideline for the further studies of cemented calcareous soils.

Key words: cemented calcareous soil, artificially cementation, triaxial compression test, cyclic loading, failure state, small strain