Light solidification of Kuala Perlis dredged marine soil via admixtures of GGBS – cement and sand: 1-D compressibility study

Great quantities of dredged marine soils (DMS) have been produced from the maintenance of channels depth, anchorages and for harbour development. Most of the DMS are disposed in the sea and land. DMS have the potential to pose ecological and human health risks and it is also considered as a geowaste. Malaysia is moving towards the sustainability approach and one of the key factors to achieve it is to reduce waste. Backfilling is the basic phase for every construction therefore it shows the importance of creating artificial land in this study. Thus, this geowaste should be generated as a new resource to substitute soil for civil works such as for artificial land creation. Moreover, there is no proper guideline for beneficial reuse of DMS in Malaysia. This study is to identify the improved settlement and rate of consolidation in treated DMS and also the relationship between the compressibility parameters. DMS is referred to as a cohesive soil which includes clayey silt, sandy clay, silty clay and organic clay. This type of soil has low strength and high compressibility. Compressibility of soils is an important engineering consideration. This is due to the fact that soils subjected to increased effective stress would decrease in volume hence resulting in surface settlement. The objectives were achieved through literature review analysis and also laboratory test which was one dimensional oedometer test. A brief introduction about a skeletal framework for beneficial reuse of DMS in artificial land creation was discussed as having a well-managed DMS handling system and pre-treating it if necessary to work as a soil for civil works are important as well. On the other hand, treated DMS with more ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS) gives a lower settlement compared to specimen with higher percentage of cement in a treated soil. Thus this shows that cement content can be reduced in soil solidification when GGBS is added. The optimum binder ratio found was 3:7 where 3 is cement and 7 is GGBS. Optimum sand ratio was 10%, 50% and 75% of coarse grain soil. The specimen which complied the settlement criteria are 3C7G_20,50_CS and 3C7G_20,75_CS. Thus this mix design can be applied for civil works such as embankment and backfilling