Alkali-Activated Ground-Granulated Blast Furnace Slag for Stabilization of Marine Soft Clay
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 27, Issue 4
Abstract
This paper investigated the stabilization efficacy of alkali-activated ground-granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS) for a marine soft clay, compared with that of portland cement (PC). The influence of activators, including NaOH, , carbide slag (CS), NaOH-CS, , and , on the stabilization efficacy was investigated. A range of tests were conducted to investigate the properties of stabilized clays, including unconfined compressive strength (UCS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP). The results indicated that had no stabilization efficacy for this marine soft clay. NaOH-GGBS-stabilized clay yielded the highest UCS at 7, 28, and 90 days; however, the UCS decreased from 90 to 180 days because of the microcracking. CS-GGBS-stabilized clay had higher 90-day and 180-day UCS than that of PC-stabilized clay, but significantly lower 7-day and 28-day UCS. NaOH, , and could enhance the strength development rate of CS-GGBS-stabilized clay. However, the UCS of NaOH-CS-GGBS and -stabilized clays decreased from 90 to 180 days as well. was found to be the optimum binder for this marine soft clay, yielding at least twice higher UCS than that of PC stabilized clay at any age studied. Considerable ettringite was produced in the stabilized clay, which contributed to the enhanced strength.
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Acknowledgments
The authors greatly appreciate the funding provided by National Science and Technology Pillar Program (2012BAJ01B02-01) and Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (SBK2014040468). The authors thank Dr. Somayeh Nassiri and Dr. Leon F. Gay at the University of Alberta, Canada, for their valuable comments.
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Published In
Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 27 • Issue 4 • April 2015
Copyright
© 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jan 13, 2014
Accepted: Apr 7, 2014
Published online: Jul 24, 2014
Discussion open until: Dec 24, 2014
Published in print: Apr 1, 2015
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