Valorization of uncontaminated dredged marine sediment through sand substitution in marine grade concrete

Abstract

Marine sediment disposal is an important economic and environmental issue worldwide. In order to minimize these discharges and optimize resources through a circular economy approach, this study discusses the potential use of fine marine sediments without treatments as a sand substitute in the marine concrete class (XS2, C30/37). The Dreux-Gorisse method was applied to find the concrete formulation containing 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50% sediment by weight. The results show that an XS2 concrete C30/37 with a water to binder ratio of 0.55 could be designed with 10% of sediment replacement content without significantly affecting the concrete properties. However, the optimization of concrete mix design shows that marine concrete (XS2, C30/37) could be designed with 30% of sediment replacement content without significantly affecting the potential durability and the estimated lifetime of the concrete structure.