Preparation of anti-washout cement-stabilized marine soft clay for scouring protection of wind power pile foundations

Abstract

This study aims to prepare an anti-washout grout using marine soft clay to stabilize the wind power pile foundations. The cement, hydroxypropyl-methyl cellulose ether (HPMC), and sodium silicate were chosen as the main materials to modify the marine soft clay, and the fluidity, bleeding rate, setting time, rheology, anti-washout characteristics, and compressive strength were investigated. The results showed that high cement content, HPMC, and sodium silicate decreased the workability of grout while enhancing the washout resistance. The addition of HPMC and sodium silicate would increase the yield stress and plastic viscosity of the grout. The sodium silicate content was the key factor influencing the early strength, while the cement content and HPMC affect the later strength. The microstructures including the morphology of C-S-H gels and the content of ettringite and calcium hydroxide significantly changed with the addition of sodium silicate, and Friedel’s salt was observed through the microstructure analysis. This study can provide effective guidance for the utilization of marine soft clay, the preparation of anti-washout grout, and the control of pile foundation stability.

Keywords:

• Marine soft clay
• cement stabilization
• washout resistance
• rheology
• microstructure

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Xiuhao Li: Investigation, Conceptualization, Methodology, Formal analysis. Zhijing Zhu: Investigation, Writing – original draft. Rentai Liu: Supervision, Funding acquisition. Chunyu Zhang: Investigation, Data curation. Qingsong Zhang: Supervision. Shucai Li: Resources. Mengjun Chen: Writing-review & editing, Validation.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the joint Funds of the Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number U1906229]; and the Key R & D project of Shandong Province [grant number 2020CXGC011403].