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Solidification effect and mechanism of ionic soil stabilizer applied on high-water-content clay

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Abstract

The in situ solidification of soft clay deposits and reclamation of dredged clays are challenging due to the high water content and low strength. An eco-friendly ionic soil stabilizer (ISS) was used to stabilize a saturated soft mucky clay with high water content. The ISS-solidification effect was investigated by a series of physical and mechanical tests and microscopic tests. The results demonstrated that ISS had a good solidification effect on high-water-content raw clay with the increase in unconfined compressive strength (+48.0%) and vertical yield stress (+66.7%), and with the decrease in plasticity index (-29.6%), compression index (-34.2%) and compressibility coefficient (-22.6%) at the optimal dilution volume ratio. Besides, the ISS clay solidification micro-mechanism was studied by use of a series of microscopic tests. The results showed that there was no new mineral or oxide formed after ISS-clay solidification, except for the new element C with the content of 19.92% observed in the solidified specimen, which was ascribed to the hydrocarbon radical in ISS. However, Ca\(^{2+}\) and Mg\(^{2+}\) on clay colloid surfaces were replaced by Fe\(^{3+}\), Al\(^{3+}\), K\(^{+}\), and Na\(^{+}\) in ISS diluent during the curing process. The micro-mechanism can be interpreted as the reducing d-value in clay mineral and cation exchanging on clay colloid surfaces, and then, the special binary molecular structure of sulfonated oil in ISS lead to a breakdown of double electric layer structure and expulsions of interlayer, bound and free water from clay, which contributed to the close arrangement and compact aggregation of clay minerals.

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Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the Young Scholars of National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41602319), and the Regional Guidance Special Fund of the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China (Grant No. CUGQYZX1717).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Engineering, China University of Geosciences, 430074, Wuhan, China

    Xue-Ting Wu & Yi Qi

  2. Department of Physics, Hangzhou Normal University, 430074, Hangzhou, China

    Bin Chen

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  1. Xue-Ting Wu
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Correspondence to Xue-Ting Wu.

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Wu, XT., Qi, Y. & Chen, B. Solidification effect and mechanism of ionic soil stabilizer applied on high-water-content clay. Bull Eng Geol Environ 80, 8583–8595 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10064-021-02433-w

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