Geotechnical Studies on Marine Clay Stabilized Using Quarry Dust, Granulated Blast Furnace Slag and Cement and its Applications

Abstract

Coastal region has vast existence of problematic clayey soil referred as marine clay. This problematic soil is characterized by its high consistency limits, high compressibility and low shear strength. In order to overcome these problems, an industrial by-product obtained from the rock crushers and iron industry i.e. Quarry dust (QD) and granulated blast furnace slag (GBFS) has been utilized to enhance the strength and index properties of marine clay. Marine clay was replaced by these granular by-products in various proportions and evaluated for its geotechnical performance. From the experimental data, it was observed that marine clay when replaced with 35% QD and 40% GBFS produced good improvement in UCC strength and shear strength and this proportion is termed as optimum combination. The research includes an experimental investigation on cement addition to optimum QD-marine clay and Optimum GBFS-marine clay combinations on their shear strength parameters. The improvement in strength was justified by conducting microstructural analysis using SEM and XRD. The experimental results are used in numerical analysis i.e., in PLAXIS 2D for load-settlement analysis of a strip footing. In addition, the study also extends in evaluating the effectiveness of QD and GBFS along with cement in the production of compressed stabilized earth blocks (CSEB). From the current study, it is concluded that marine clay stabilized using QD and GBFS with/without cement can be effectively used in geotechnical applications, thereby increasing the rate of effective disposal of GBFS. Also, Study infers GBFS s more effective in stabilizing marine clay compared to quarry dust.