## 3 Results and Analysis
### Effect of Proportion of ISWs on UCS and the Optimal Proportion  
The ternary plot in Figure 5 illustrates the variation in the _UCS_ of stabilized aeolian sand with the proportions of ISWs, where the name of ISWs represents their dosages. Since four types of ISWs were utilized as raw materials in this study and a single ternary plot can only accommodate three variables, to depict their synergistic effects and mutual influences, each ternary plot fixes one variable at a specific level. Subsequently, the changes in _UCS_ with respect to the other three variables are investigated for different levels of the fixed variable. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c} \hline
**No.** & _UCS_ (MPa) & \(E\) (MPa) & _DI_ \\ \hline
11 & 1.55 & 127 & 1.09 \\
12 & 1.51 & 147 & 1.10 \\
13 & 1.23 & 114 & 1.09 \\
14 & 1.19 & 133 & 1.12 \\
15 & 0.81 & 116 & 1.19 \\
16 & 0.82 & 135 & 1.23 \\
17 & 1.06 & 122 & 1.09 \\
18 & 0.51 & 55 & 1.14 \\
19 & 0.43 & 74 & 1.20 \\
20 & 0.27 & 41 & 1.31 \\
21 & 0.95 & 122 & 1.19 \\
22 & 0.51 & 76 & 1.26 \\
23 & 1.34 & 159 & 1.08 \\
24 & 0.71 & 94 & 1.27 \\
25 & 0.53 & 58 & 1.44 \\
26 & 0.82 & 106 & 1.10 \\ CE & 1.50 & 139 & 1.03 \\ \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 3: _Cont._  
Figure 4: Stress–strain curves of test specimens: (**a**) 1–5, (**b**) 6–10, (**c**) 11–15, (**d**) 16–20, (**e**) 21–26, and (**f**) typical characteristic of \(\sigma\)–\(\varepsilon\) curve. The fixed factor of Figure 5a is CS. It can be observed that, regardless of the CS dosages, the _UCS_ of stabilized aeolian sand increases with the increment in the GGBFS dosage but decreases with the increase in PS and SS dosages. When the CS dosage is 40%, the _UCS_ of stabilized aeolian sand reaches its maximum value at a PS dosage below 30% and GGBFS dosage above 32%, while the SS dosage above 17% leads to a significant decrease in _UCS_. When the CS content is increased to 48.3% and 56.7%, the changes in _UCS_ become more  
Figure 5: Effect of proportion of ISWs on _UCS_ of stabilized aeolian sand, where fixed factor is (**a**) CS, (**b**) PS, (**c**) GGBFS, and (**d**) SS. pronounced, and the contour lines gradually become perpendicular to the GGBFS axis, indicating that the influence of the GGBFS dosage on _UCS_ is most significant at these levels. The main chemical component of CS is CaO, and changes in its dosage can alter the alkalinity of the system. The increase in alkalinity caused by an increase in CS dosage may be the reason why the influence of GGBFS becomes more significant. In Figure 5b, with PS serving as the fixed factor, the variation trend of _UCS_ of stabilized aeolian sand is similar to that observed when the dosage of is fixed. However, it exhibits a slight increase with the elevation of SS dosage. This trend becomes more pronounced when the PS dosage reaches 21.6%. This can be explained by the fact that a higher PS dosage limits the incorporation of GGBFS with the highest reactivity. At this point, increasing the SS dosage can, to a certain extent, supplement the reactants for the pozzolanic reaction. Nevertheless, due to the inherently low reactivity of SS, it fails to elicit particularly significant changes in strength. Meanwhile, an increase in CS leads to a notable decrease in _UCS_, indicating that excessively high alkalinity is detrimental to the strength of stabilized aeolian sand. The fixed factor of Figure 5c is GGBFS. It can be indicated that the _UCS_ of stabilized aeolian sand increases with the elevation of PS dosage. Notably, when the GGBFS dosage reaches 18%, a CS content higher than 47% (with SS dosage less than 12% and PS dosage less than 30%) results in a rapid decline in _UCS_. This is attributed to the fact that both PS and GGBFS, which serve as reactants for the pozzolanic reaction, are present at relatively low levels at this point, and CaO constitutes the majority of CS, with its hydration product almost exclusively Ca(OH)\({}_{2}\), which leads to an excessively high alkalinity in the system and a relative scarcity of hydration products with a gelling effect.