Particle Size Analysis of Lime-Treated Marine Clays

Lime is commonly used to improve the engineering behavior of marine clay. But there is a need to investigate the lime-attributed changes in a particulate system in a marine environment. Lime columns 50 mm in diameter and 500 mm in length were installed in test tanks 600 mm in diameter at a depth of 550 mm, while lime injection was attempted in a test tank, 1000 by 1000 by 750 mm. The present investigation deals with experimental work carried out in the laboratory using lime column and lime injection techniques to stabilize an Indian marine clay in a salt water environment. Different inorganic additives were used with lime as column filler material to study the effect of lime-attributed changes occurring in the particle growth of soil systems. Grain-size distribution tests and SEM technique were carried out to study the lime-induced changes on the constituent particles. The test results indicate that there is an increase in the size of clay particles towards silt or fine sand fraction due to lime treatment. The formation of aggregates due to lime-soil reactions can be seen in the micrographs of different lime-treated soil systems, and the same has been confirmed using the SEM technique.