Two-phase changes in workability of sand-bentonite mixture triggered by seawater and binder during seepage cut-off wall construction in marine environment

Abstract

Phenomenal sea level rise is exacerbating the risk of seawater intrusion in coastal areas, especially those with sandy soil, causing land erosion. Seepage cut-off walls made of in-situ sand, bentonite and binder can be employed. However, the presence of salts in soil is detrimental to water retention ability of bentonite, which can be aggravated by binder-induced cation exchange reactions, causing constructability issues for two-phase cut-off walls. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate the workability properties, including flowability and bleeding of sand-bentonite-binder mixture in seawater environment. The mechanism of decrease in water retention of bentonite has been investigated using Atterberg limits, X-ray diffration (XRD) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) analyses. In phase-one construction, seawater significantly increased flowability of sand-bentonite mixture. During the second phase, binder inclusion increased flowability even further. Given comparable flowability, the bleeding in sand-bentonite-binder mixture containing seawater was much greater than in the non-seawater environment. This was ascribed to a loss in water retention capacity of bentonite, in which external cations from seawater and binder exchanged with bentonite, resulting in reduction in liquid limit. The Na-based montmorillonite was transformed into Ca-based montmorillonite, causing the morphology of bentonite particles to flocculate. Despite this, the study discovered a feasible sand-bentonite-binder mixture including reactive magnesia (MgO)-activated ground granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBS) and seawater-resistant bentonite, which impeded the increase in workability.