Strength of High Water-Content Marine Clay Stabilized by Low Amount of Cement
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 139, Issue 12
Abstract
An ideal solution for disposal of large volumes of unwanted dredged clays is to stabilize and use them as fill materials for land reclamations. This kind of stabilized dredged fill (SDF) requires a lower cement amount () compared with traditional cement-treated soils. Strength behavior might be different for mixes within the inactive zone (lower ) and those within the active zone (higher ). The SDF is fully/partially within the inactive zone. A new set of unconfined compressive strength () data as well as data compiled from literature covering both lower and higher are analyzed. First, main parameters governing of cement-stabilized clays are identified: (1) cement amount (), and (2) water content (). Then, behaviors in the inactive zone and active zone are compared. Results indicate that a nonlinear normalized trend is commonly observed in the inactive zone whereas a linear one is observed in the active zone. In both zones, the normalized curve (or normalized curve) is unique for a given soil type, regardless of (or ). The key conclusion is that and should be considered as separate variables in the estimation of , rather than in a combined form such as water:cement ratio (). The practical outcome is the development of an empirical formula as a function of and for estimation of of cement-stabilized clays. Validation results show the proposed formula is applicable to both inactive zone and active zone.
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Acknowledgments
This study has been supported by Singapore’s Ministry of National D&R Fund on “Enhancing the use of unwanted soils for land reclamation purpose—Solving an environmental problem and developing a viable alternate fill.” The authors acknowledge the invaluable cooperation and assistance offered by Housing and Development Board and Surbana International Consultants Pte Ltd.
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Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 139 • Issue 12 • December 2013
Pages: 2170 - 2181
Copyright
© 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Aug 21, 2012
Accepted: Apr 22, 2013
Published online: Apr 23, 2013
Published in print: Dec 1, 2013
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