Sustainable improvement of soft marine clay using low cement content: A multi-scale experimental investigation

Abstract

The sustainable utilization of dredged soft clays for land reclamation requires a lower strength with lesser cement content as compared to traditional cement-treated clays. The mechanical behavior of soft clays at low cement content can differ from clays treated with higher content. For land reclamation, the required cement content is generally used up to 10%. Hence, this study is focused on analyzing the sustainable utilization of soft clays treated with cement content lower than 7%. Additionally, a comparison is drawn between a low-cement-treated soft clay with the highly cemented clays to determine the difference in mechanical behavior. Shanghai soft clay is reconstituted with cement content from 0 to 6%. The experimental investigation indicates that the low cement content has a significant effect on the microstructure, compression characteristics, compressive strength, undrained stress paths, and stress-strain behavior. However, the effect of curing time on such characteristics is limited. The mechanical behavior of low-cement-treated soft clay is similar to the highly cemented clays with respect to the relationships of compressive strength with strain at failure, yield stress and clay-water/cement ratio but is different with respect to deformation modulus versus compressive strength. The outcomes of this study can help to choose the minimum required cement content for the fill materials of land reclamation projects.