Use of uncontaminated marine sediments in mortar and concrete by partial substitution of cement

The disposal of dredged marine sediments has become a major economic and environmental issue in the world. In this study, uncontaminated marine sediments dredged in the harbor of Dunkirk (France) were dried and ground and then used in partial substitution of cement in the manufacture of mortars and concretes. A given volume of cement has been replaced by the same volume of sediment for three substitution contents (10%, 20%, 30%) of a Portland cement CEM I 52.5. The flexural and compressive strengths of mortars decreased when the sediment replacement content increased. However, the mechanical properties of the mortar with 20% replacement of cement with sediments were better than those of a mortar made from cement CEM II/A-LL 32.5 containing a proportion of limestone similar to the sediment substitution. The total porosity measured by mercury intrusion porosimetry of different types of mortars showed that the porosity increased as the sediment substitution content increased but the pore size distribution was shifted toward smaller pores. Finally, it was demonstrated that concrete C30/37 could be designed with 20% cement replaced by sediment without the use of admixture. Additionally, this concrete fulfilled the standards with respect to the total chloride content required for unreinforced concrete. As a conclusion, dried and finely ground uncontaminated sediments appeared to be a very interesting constituent for partially substituting up to 20% of cement as its efficiency overpass limestone filler.