An Experimental Study on Compression and Shrinkage Behavior of Cement-Treated Marine Deposited Clays

Marine clay deposits are commonly found soils around the world. Owing to the high costs of material disposal and the associated environmental problems, there is a growing need to find an alternative solution to reusing unsuitable soils. In the current study, the shrinkage and compression behavior of marine deposited clays, a soil commonly found worldwide, has been studied using intact, reconstituted, and cement-treated samples. Additionally, the effect of cement inclusion was evaluated for dosages ranging from 1 to 7%. Furthermore, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis and X-ray diffractometry were conducted to study the microstructural developments of cement-treated clays. The results reported in this paper have important practical implications as they provide significant knowledge on the compressibility behavior of marine deposited clays, examined for the first time considering a sensitivity framework. Such an examination allows assessment of the effect of burial depth and cement incorporation on structure. This study further enables manipulation of the engineering properties and hence serves to develop the constitutive modeling of cement-treated clays. Furthermore, a well-established relationship developed in shrinkage and compressibility of marine deposited clays will serve to optimize these two independent soil properties.