Effect of cement on the consolidation behavior of marine clay in comparison with clay minerals

The effect of cement on the strength of marine clay is well-known. However, the importance of long-term consolidation settlement of soil-cement columns created with cement-stabilized marine clay has been less considered. This study aimed to determine the minimum cement content which can eliminate the probability of consolidation settlement under marine conditions. The consolidation behavior of marine carbonate clay was evaluated at a range of cement contents. In order to fundamentally evaluate its consolidation behavior and to generalize the results to the other clay types, the behavior of kaolinite as an inactive clay and bentonite as an active clay also were evaluated. The results showed that the effect of cement on the consolidation behavior of marine carbonate clay was similar to that of inactive clays, such as kaolinite. The optimum range of cement was found to be 6–10% to eliminate long-term consolidation settlement in the both marine clay and kaolinite. For high plasticity clays, lime along with a cement content of >15% should be used. The addition of 10% cement to marine clay increased the yield stress about 400% to a pre-consolidation value of 500 kPa, which is more than the applied stress for ordinary practical projects.