Improvements of marine clay slurries using chemical–physical combined method (CPCM)

In this paper, the effectiveness, applicability and validity of chemical–physical combined methods (CPCMs) for treatment of marine clay (MC) slurries were evaluated. The method CPCM1 combines chemical stabilization and vacuum preloading (VP), while CPCM2 is similar to CPCM1 but includes both the application of surcharge and use of geo-bags to provide confinement during surcharge preloading. The key advantage of CPCM2 using geo-bags is that the surcharge can be immediately applied on the chemically stabilized slurries. Two types of geo-bags were investigated under simulated land filling and dyke conditions, respectively. The test results show that the shear strength (cu) of treated slurry by CPCM2 is generally much higher than that by CPCM1. Besides, the use of CPCM2 can significantly reduce the treatment time due to the short drainage paths created by geo-bags. Overall, CPCM2 allows faster consolidation and higher preloading that help to achieve higher mechanical properties of the stabilized slurry. There are consistent relationships between cU and water content of slurries treated by CPCM2. Several important observations were also made based on comparisons of experimental data.