Strength estimation of cement-treated marine dredged clay under a wide range of water-to-cement ratio

Abstract

Cement-based treatment is a well-established technology for converting unwanted marine dredged clay (MDC) to qualified filling materials. However, a basic understanding of the strength development of cement-treated MDC is still lacking. In this study, we attempt to characterize the strength variation of cement-treated MDC under a wide range of water-to-cement ratios (w/c). The dominant influencing factors such as initial water content, cement content, curing time and pore salinity are examined through a series of laboratory tests. The results indicate that the strength of cement-treated MDC decreases exponentially with the initial water content. The strength approaches zero when the initial water content increases to 3.5–4.0 times the liquid limit, even with a high content of cement. The effect of pore salinity depends significantly on the cement content and curing time. Owing to the wide range of w/c, the extensively used Abrams’ law fails to characterize the strength variation of cement-treated MDC precisely. To this end, a new strength prediction model is proposed based on the concept of minimum cement content. The volume ratio is found to be inferior to the mass ratio in defining the minimum cement content, which remains approximately constant even for a wide range of w/c.

Keywords:

• marine dredged clay
• cement-treated
• strength behavior
• minimum cement content
• estimation method

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This study is partially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51978159), National Key R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2015BAB07B06) and Scientific Research Foundation of Graduate School of Southeast University (Grant No. YBPY2162).