Plasticity and Strength Behaviour of Marine Clay Stabilized with Waste Steel Dust for Soil Improvement Works

Abstract

Soft marine clay soil is characterized with highly compressible behavior, in which associated with poor bearing capacity and low in shear resistance. Soil improvement works are carried out to reduce the soil failure and destruction to the superstructure. Various techniques available for soil stabilization including the use of admixture to improve the engineering properties of the problematic soil. This paper aims to report on the use of waste steel dust retrieved from the medication supply industry as soil stabilization agent. Several series of Atterberg limit test and Unconfined Compressive Test were carried out to foresee the potential use of the waste steel dust for the purpose of civil engineering applications. The significant findings from this study is evident that the waste steel dust ranges from 5% to 15% did not able to serve as soil stabilization agent. It can reduce the plastic behavior of the soil sample; however, it also caused the strength of the soil declined. In comparison with previous studies, the presence of activated agent could possibly enhance the performance of waste steel dust as an alternative treatment agent to soil improvement works. The use of activated agent is to serve as pozzolanic materials to create cementitious bonding in between the soil interparticles matrix.

Mechanical Properties of Clay Based Cemented Paste Backfill for Coal Recovery from Deep Mines

“…In addition, much high-plasticity marine clay composed of fine sand and clay will be produced during the construction of coastal engineering works [5]. This is mainly present as silt and silty soil, which has low bearing capacity and poor shear resistance [6]. The efficiency of direct utilization of marine clay by traditional methods is relatively low.…”