Compressive strength behavior of treated marine clay using ordinary portland cement and blast furnace slag

Abstract

Soft marine clay often treated as a problematic soil with undesirable properties of low bearing capacity, high compressibility and low hydraulic conductivity. In many suggested ground improvement works, mixing of additional binders to the marine clay can increase the strength of the soft marine clay. This research will be focused on the effects of compressive strength of the marine treated clay using ordinary Portland cement (OPC) and ground-granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS) by conducting laboratory testing of unconfined compressive strength (UCS) with different curing time. The preliminary tests on the physical and chemical properties of the marine clay was carried out to have a better understanding on the suitability and properties of the marine clay. The marine clay used in this research is collected from Jimah, Port Dickson in Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia. The samples were tested after a curing period of 7, 14, 28 and 56 days based on two (2) different design mix of slag cement proportion of 0:100 and 70:30. Total of 8%, 11% and 14% binder content to the total weight of samples with water cement ratio of 1.0 were added. From the study, it can be concluded that the strength of the treated marine clay increased with increasing amount of binder content and duration of the curing time. Sample with slag cement proportion of 70:30 have lower strength at early stage but reach higher UCS at later stage when compared with sample with slag cement proportion of 0:100 due to strong pozzolanic reaction of GGBFS. The investigation has shown that GGBFS is a strong bind product that can be used to improve UCS.