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Abstract
1. Introduction
One of the techniques of improving thick deposit of soft clay is the deep
mixing method (DMM). In DMM, the chemical agents, which are either powder or
slurries of lime or cement, are mixed into the soft clay ground to form columns of
soil-cement piles or DMM piles. When cured, these DMM piles can harden and,
then, act as soft ground reinforcements, thereby, increasing the load-bearing capacity
of the ground. The DMM piles are manufactured in situ mainly by mechanical
mixing or less commonly by pressurized jet mixing (Kamon and Bergado, 1991;
Kamon, 1996). The chemical admixtures are mixed into the soil by mixing blades in
the mechanical mixing method and by pressurized slurry injection in the jet mixing
method.
2. Laboratory Testing
The base clay utilized in this study is the soft Bangkok clay found at the
campus of the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Pathumthani, Thailand. The soil
profile at the site consists of 2 m thick weathered clay, about 6 m soft clay, and about
5 m thick first stiff clay. Beyond the first stiff clay the stratification consists of
alternating layers of stiff clay and dense sand with gravel down to 500 m depth
(Bergado et al., 1996). Sampling was done only from 4 to 5 m depth within the soft
clay layer. The liquid limit is about 103% and the natural water content varies from
76% to 84%. The specific gravity, Gs, and the initial void ratio, eo, are 2.68 and 2.31,
respectively. The undrained shear strength, Su, as obtained from UC tests, ranges
from 16 to 17 kPa.
The clay samples utilized in all tests were remolded to water contents ranging
from the liquid limit (LL) up to 1.5LL. The remolding clay water content ( *) is
hereinafter defined as the water content of the remolded clay prior to the addition of
cement slurry. The purpose of varying the remolding water contents is to simulate
the actual condition of soil-cement column installation using the deep mixing method
(DMM) with slurry of cement (e.g. Yang, 1997), and, significantly, to study the
effect of mixing water content on the stabilization of cured cement-treated clay.
The amount of water to be added to a wet soil sample in order to get the
desired remolding water content was obtained using the following equation:
*
Ww= WT( - o)/(1+ o) (1)
again with hand mixing until the sample was felt to be thoroughly mixed with
uniform water content.
The prepared remolded clay sample with known remolding water content was
mixed with cement slurry having water-cement ratio (W/C) of 0.6. Type I Portland
cement was utilized. Mixing was done using a portable mechanical mixer for about
10 minutes until a homogeneous clay-water-cement mixture was attained. Since the
cement slurry has water in it, then the overall water content of the clay-water-cement
mixture just at the time of mixing will be the total remolding water plus the water in
the cement slurry. The overall water content is hereinafter called as the total clay
water content (Cw), which is defined as:
C
w
= *+
W
A
C w
( ) (2)
where Cw is the total clay water content of the clay-water-cement paste (in %)
reckoned from the dry weight of soil only; * is the remolding water content of the
base clay (in %) before mixing the cement slurry; W/C is the water-cement ratio by
weight of the slurry; and Aw is the desired cement content (in %). Cement content
(Aw) is defined as the percentage ratio of the weight of cement to the dry weight of
soil. Equation 2, however, disregards the amount of water lost in the hydration
process of cement during slurry preparation, for such an amount is deemed to be
practically minimal, especially in the case of higher water content cement-admixed
clay (Lorenzo and Bergado, 2004).
The overall cement-admixed clay preparation for the entire testing program
consisted of 100%, 130% and 160% remolding water contents, each of which was in
combination with 10% and 15% cement contents.
Due to the high workability of the clay-cement paste, each specimen for
unconfined compression test was made by pushing the paste into the 50 mm diameter
by 100 mm height PVC mold. Pushing was done to remove air bubbles. The molded
paste was allowed to protrude out from the other end of the mold for checking the
occurrence of honeycomb structure. Pushing was continued until the surface of the
protruding specimen was uniform and smooth. The density of each specimen with
the same mixing condition was monitored and kept constant. The mold together with
the specimen was waxed to prevent moisture loss and, then, were placed for curing
until 28 days inside the humidity room having a maintained ambient temperature of
25 C and humidity of 97%. After curing, the unconfined compression (UC) test was
carried out following ASTM D2166-85. The displacements and loads were recorded
automatically through the use of displacement transducer and load cell using the
Central Data Acquisition (CDA) system.
The specimens for oedometer testing were made by placing the clay-cement
paste directly into the oedometer rings. This technique was adapted to avoid
disturbance in the subsequent sample cutting and fitting into the oedometer ring. The
oedometer rings together with the specimens inside were placed on a glass plate and
wrapped with an airtight plastic bag, and, then, placed inside the humidity room for
curing. The curing period for all oedometer test specimens was 28 days. After curing,
the consolidation test was performed following the standard procedure of ASTM
D2435-80. After saturation, the first load of 12.5 kPa was applied. The succeeding
loads followed a load increment ratio (LIR) of unity.
1200 28 days curing Clay Water Content 1200 28 days curing Clay Water Content
1100 10% cement content Remolding Total 1100 15 cement content Remolding Total
1000 100 106% 1000 100 109%
130 136% 130 139%
900 160 166% 900 160 169%
800 80 83% 800 80 84%
700 700
600 600
500 500
400 400
300 300
200 200
100 100
0 0
0 1 2 3 4 5 0 1 2 3 4 5
Axial strain (%) Axial strain (%)
(a) 10% cement content (b) 15% cement content
4.0 28 days curing Clay Water Content 4.0 28 days curing Clay Water Content
10% cement content 15% cement content
Remolding Total Remolding Total
3.5 160 166% 3.5 160 169%
130 136% 130 139%
100 106% 100 109%
3.0 80 83% 3.0 80 84%
Void ratio, e
Void ratio, e
2.5 2.5
2.0 2.0
1.5 1.5
1.0 1.0
10 100 1000 10000 10 100 1000 10000
Effective stress, v' (kPa) Effective stress, v' (kPa)
(a) 10% Cement content (b) 15% Cement content
Water is essential in mixing the cement with the clay. The total water content
in the mixture is the sum of the natural water content of the soil plus the water
injected into the clay associated with its remolding as well as the water in the slurry.
Water is required during hydration process of cement. It is also required for good and
efficient mixing. Besides, water is a medium that enables the cementing ions to
disperse within the voids of soil mass. The presence of air space in the partially
saturated soil hinders the free dispersion of the cementing ions, and the presence of
too much water in the oversaturated clay eventually requires much amount of cement
to bind together soil particles that have been loosely dispersed by the presence of
excess water.
There are two possible extreme cases of mixing water content: (1) it can be too
high, or (2) it can be too low. Figures 3a,b,c and d illustrate, in schematic diagrams
of an small portion of cement-admixed clay mass, the effect of mixing water contents
on the strength development of the resulting improved soil. Figure 3a shows the
schematic diagram of small portion of untreated clay mass with two clay-to-clay
contact surfaces in contact and one nearly in contact. If this small portion of clay
mass is subjected to varying water contents but mixed with certain amount of cement
content, then each of the resulting mixtures is expected to have the same amount of
cementing products but with different after-curing void ratio, as shown in Figures
3b,c and d. The cementing products are derived from the primary cementing products
produced during hydration process of cement and the pozzolanic products from the
pozzolanic reactions between soil silica or alumina and the calcium ions which
dissociated after the hydration of cement.
clay clay
mineral mineral Clay mineral
a) Untreated clay b) High water content c) Optimum water d) Low water content
(cement-admixed) content (cement-admixed)
(cement-admixed)
On one hand, if the mixing water content is too high (Figure 3b), the resulting
cement-admixed clay can be very low in strength due to the consequent high void
ratio and can experience higher compression at lower effective stresses (i.e., low
yield stress). Figure 3b further illustrates the adverse effect of too much mixing water
during clay-water-cement paste preparation and mixing. The tendency of the clay
particles (or minerals) to lose their electrostatic attraction due to the presence of too
much water enable them to be far from each other, which would consequently reduce
the number of clay-to-clay contact surfaces to be cemented or bonded by the
pozzolanic products. Hence, it limits the strength of the resulting cemented soil
matrix. In Figure 3b, there are only twocontact surfaces being bonded or cemented
out from the three possible clay-to-clay contact surfaces, due to the presence of too
much amount of water in the voids.
On the other hand, if the mixing water content is too low (Figure 3d), the
resulting cement-admixed clay is also very low in strength. The water content can be
considered too low when it is below the liquid limit of the base clay, or when the
water content is below the saturation water content at remolded state of the soil.
When the remolded soil is not saturated, then air can occupy some portions of the
voids. The presence of air spaces can eventually reduce the ability of the cementing
ions from dispersing, because the air spaces can block them. Consequently, some of
the cementing agents may remain unmixed (Figure 3d). Miura et al. (1987) reported
a case history of Dry Jet Mixing application using quicklime wherein the possibility
of having unmixed admixture of up to 1.4% after curing the improved ground was
cited. The occurrence of unmixed admixture would surely reduce the effectiveness of
the admixing. Also, the lack of water can somehow cause some of the clay-to-clay
contact surfaces to remain unbonded or uncemented, as illustrated in Figure 3d, due
to the inefficient mixing and poor dispersion of cementing agents. The efficiency of
mixing, however, can be enhanced by increasing the time of mixing in order to
increase the mixing energy (Miura and Nishida, 1998). Unfortunately, the increase in
mixing time would eventually increase the cost of soil-cement piles/columns
installation. This paper, however, investigates the occurrence of optimum mixing
water content at a certain mixing time only.
It seems that there should be an optimum mixing water content (Cw,opt) for
clay-cement stabilization. The optimum mixing water content (Cw,opt) is hereinafter
defined as the total clay water content of the clay-water-cement paste that would
yield a cured cement-admixed clay having the highest improvement in strength at a
given cement content. In the schematic diagrams shown in Figures 3a,b,c and d, at
optimum mixing water content (Figure 3c), the three contact surfaces of clay
particles were all bonded by the cementing products from the hydration as well
pozzolanic processes. Hence, the number of contact surfaces of clay particles that
can be possibly cemented or bonded are much higher than that of other mixing water
contents. Thus, a stronger cemented soil matrix can be produced at lower cement
contents.
curing time against the ratio of total clay water content of clay-water-cement mixture
to liquid limit of the base clay (Cw/LL). The purpose of using the ratio Cw/LL as the
independent variable in the horizontal axis (Figure 4) instead of using only the total
clay water content (Cw) is to normalize and account for the effect of varying liquid
limit of the base clay. The strength curve has resemblance to the compaction curve in
compaction test: it determines the optimum mixing water content (Cw,opt) that is just
enough to cause good and efficient mixing and, thus, to yield the highest unconfined
compression strength of cement-admixed clay at particular cement content.
For the 10% cement content specimen (Figure 4), the specimen mixed from
natural water content of the base clay yielded unconfined compression strength of
only 305 kPa, but the specimen mixed from 106% total clay water content yielded
the highest unconfined compression strength of about 650 kPa. From the data of
Uddin et al. (1997) shown in Figure 4, the strength of 650 kPa could be attained at
cement content of about 17%. Therefore, at optimum mixing water content the cost
of cement has been reduced by as much as 40%. In addition, the related results from
Soralump (1996) are also plotted in Figure 4 which further confirms the existence of
optimum mixing water content.
Figure 4 further demonstrated that the Cw,opt can fall within the range from the
liquid limit (LL) up to about 1.10LL of the base clay. This range of mixing clay
water contents is considered to be effective for clay-cement stabilization. This range
of mixing water content is, therefore, recommended to be employed in the actual
construction of deep mixing piles. This suggested range, however, may not be the
same for other types of clay, in which case it is necessary to obtain a strength curve
similar to that shown in Figure 4 using the technique discussed in section 6.
cw/LL=1.10
1000 Cement
900 content
10%
800 15%
20%
700 20%, data from
600 Soralump (1996)
500
400
300
200
28 days curing time
100
0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2.0
Ratio of total clay water content to liquid limit of base clay, Cw/LL
For index purposes, the strength improvement can be evaluated simply through
unconfined compression tests. To ascertain the optimum mixing clay water content
for a certain type of clay at a certain curing period, curing method, and mixing time;
cement-admixed clay specimens must be prepared with mixing clay water contents
varying from natural water content up to about 1.5 times the liquid limit of the base
clay. The methods presented in Sections 2.2, 2.3 and 2.4 in the preparation of
cement-admixed clay specimen can be followed. After curing, the unconfined
compression of each specimen is determined by conducting unconfined compression
test following ASTM 2166-85 procedure. After testing, the strength curve (similar to
Figure 4) is plotted to obtained the optimum mixing water content.
If the soft clay has natural water content well above its liquid limit, the
determination of optimum mixing water content may not be necessary. Not only it is
very difficult to reduce the natural water content of the actual ground, but also it may
not be economical and practical in the point of view of actual construction of DMM
piles/columns in the field. Thus, the cement can be mixed directly into the ground
with the high natural water content of the soil.
7. Conclusion
The mixing water content has been found from laboratory investigation to be a
crucial parameter that affects the effectiveness of deep mixing. Failure to select the
most appropriate mixing water content will result to uneconomical mixing. The
results of unconfined compression and one-dimensional compression tests of cement-
admixed Bangkok clay have confirmed the existence of optimum mixing water
content (Cw,opt). The Cw,opt is defined as the total clay water content of the clay-
cement paste that can yield the highest possible improvement in strength of cured
cement-admixed clay at a particular cement content. Consequently, a technique of
determining the optimum mixing water content has been suggested owing to the
development of the so called strength curve that has resemblance to the
compaction curve in compaction test, which enables the determination of Cw,opt.
Based on the laboratory tests, the Cw,opt was found to fall within the liquid limit (LL)
up to about 1.10LL of the base clay. Significantly, using the optimum mixing clay
water content, only 10% cement content by weight is needed instead of the
corresponding 17% cement content in the conventional method, with consequent
reduction in the cost of cement by as much as 40%.
References