MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF MARINE CLAY STABILIZED BY QUICKLIME-ACTIVATED GGBS AND PRESSURE DEHYDRATION

Abstract

 To reduce the high carbon emissions associated with conventional cement solidification technology for high-water marine clay, this study proposes a composite solidification technology that combines quicklime-activated granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS) with mechanical dehydration. Through comparative tests on samples with varying solidifying material contents (0% to 50%) and dehydration pressures (0 to 5 MPa), it was found that: As the solidifying material content increases, the water content of samples decreases gradually, reaching 163.8% for the sample with 50% solidifying material content. The effect of mechanical dehydration becomes more evident under pressure. Under a pressure of 5 MPa, the water content of the sample with 20% solidifying material content drops to only 40.9%. The unconfined compressive strength (UCS) first increases and then decreases as the solidifying material content increases. When the solidifying material content reaches 40%, the UCS of the sample peaks at 1.01 MPa. Excessive content of 50% leads to cracks in the sample due to volume expansion, which reduces the compression strength. Mechanical dehydration significantly enhances the UCS of the sample. Under a dehydration pressure of 5 MPa, the UCS of the sample with 10% solidifying material content reaches 2.78 MPa, representing a 1290% increase compared to the undehydrated sample. The research findings offer a practical solution for the efficient and low-carbon solidification of high-water marine clay.