Physico-chemical and engineering behavior of cement treated Singapore marine clay

Abstract

This research aims to explain some aspects of engineering behavior of cement treated Singapore marine clays with the help of observed physico-chemical as well as microstructural behavior. The X-ray diffraction analysis of cement treated clay enables the identification of the formation of several cementitious products. With the cement treatment, the fabric of the clay changes to flocculated type as observed from the Scanning Electron Microscopic (SEM) images, and the effective size of the particles and entrance pore diameter increases. This resulted in an increase in permeability. The unconfined compressive strength and stiffness of treated clay increase with cement content and curing time. At prolonged curing time, the pozzolanic reaction is very significant leading to the formation of more structured treated clay. The effective shear strength parameters of the treated clay increase with cement content. The significant increase in apparent pre-consolidation pressure and upward shifting of the yield surface of the treated clay is observed. This is due to the structuration of treated clay particles. At very high stress, progressive destructuration of the treated clay particles is verified by the SEM images and particle size analysis. Due to the effect of destructuration, the stiffness at destructuration state reduces significantly.