Consolidation Behavior of Fly Ash-Based Geopolymer-Stabilized Dredged Mud
Publication: Journal of Waterway, Port, Coastal, and Ocean Engineering
Volume 144, Issue 4
Abstract
Ports use soft dredged material for land reclamation to address land scarcity and environmental constraints. Land reclaimed with soft dredged material has the properties of high compressibility and slow consolidation that need to be improved. This laboratory study investigated the effect of a fly ash-based geopolymer binder on the consolidation behavior of soft dredged mud derived from the Port of Townsville, Queensland, Australia. For geopolymer synthesization, an alkali activator solution to aluminosilicate source material mix designs that is used in the geopolymer concrete industry was adopted. The dredged mud sediments were reconstituted at 400% water content dredged mud slurries of nontreated and geopolymer stabilized at 6, 12, and 18% by weight. A series of standard one-dimensional consolidation tests was conducted to study the consolidation and compressibility characteristics of the dredged mud sediments. Taylor’s square root of time curve-fitting method was used to estimate the coefficient of consolidation. The study found that the fly ash-based geopolymer stabilization improved the compressibility, permeability, and consolidation characteristics of the dredged mud sediments. The findings indicate the feasibility of stabilizing dredged mud while still in its slurry form.
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Acknowledgments
The fly-ash material used in this research study was donated by Cement Australia Pty Ltd. The authors acknowledge the assistance of Warren O’Donnell, Senior Engineering Technician (now retired), Geomechanics Laboratory, College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University, Townsville, Australia.
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Published In
Journal of Waterway, Port, Coastal, and Ocean Engineering
Volume 144 • Issue 4 • July 2018
Copyright
© 2018 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Aug 7, 2017
Accepted: Jan 25, 2018
Published online: May 8, 2018
Published in print: Jul 1, 2018
Discussion open until: Oct 8, 2018
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