Soil–Water Transfer Mechanism for Solidified Dredged Materials

Abstract

The paper presents a study of the soil–water transfer mechanism for solidified dredged materials. Soil–water consists of free water, bound water, and hydration water. The resulting hydrates change the soil–water composition in a cement-based solidification process. A soil–water transfer model is postulated to explain the relationship between soil–water composition and cement content. The test results of solidified specimens cured after 7 and 28 days showed that the hydration water increases linearly with the cement content, and the bound water increases nonlinearly with the cement content. There exists a threshold cement content beyond which the free water is eliminated from the solidified specimen. Further, the model is used to predict the mechanical behavior of the solidified dredged materials. Below the threshold cement content, the unconfined compressive strength may be related to the bound water content. Above the threshold cement content, the shear strength may be related to the hydration water content. In addition, brittle stress-strain behavior commences when the incremental increase of bound water content begins decreasing.