Load–Settlement Behavior of Soft Marine Clay Treated with Metakaolin and Calcium Chloride

A developing country like India has to show its development by leaps and bounds in the fields of infrastructure development, transportation, and communication system. The peninsular India is having a lengthy coastal belt of around 7700 km; except north all three sides of India is surrounded by Bay of Bengal in the east, Indian Ocean in the south, and Arabian Sea on the west. The areas surrounded by the coast are being utilized since ages. So, inevitably several national and international authorities are doing research and development on coastal structures. The various potential problems associated with this marine clay are land slippage slope stability, poor foundation support, and poor drainage. Owing to such soils of poor engineering properties, a great diversity of ground improvement techniques such as soil stabilization and chemical treatment is employed to improve their mechanical behavior, thereby enhancing the reliability of construction. Metakaolin is applied in soil stabilization for foundations or road subgrade. However, metakaolin along with calcium chloride treatment for these poor soils, as an alternative to the traditional “remove and replace” strategies commonly utilized was found to be satisfactory in the laboratory evaluation. Hence, the authors arrived at an optimum content of metakaolin mixed to soft marine clay, and then further, it is chemically treated with calcium chloride. The optimum dosage of calcium chloride in combination with the optimum content of metakaolin was evaluated from the tests conducted in the laboratory. Further, the authors studied the performance of soft marine clay beds prepared with different alternative treatments by conducting load tests in the laboratory. The test results indicated that the load-carrying capacity of the metakaolin-treated marine clay bed was improved and further it was increased by chemical treatment with calcium chloride.