THE INFLUENCE OF POTASSIUM CHLORIDE ON THE REINFORCED MARINE CLAY FOR FOUNDATION SOIL BEDS

Abstract

Weak marine soil deposits have been found both on the coast and in several offshore areas spread over many parts of the world. When clay particles precipitate in salt water, there is a tendency for the clay particles to flocculate and stick together giving rise to some sort of edge-to-face arrangement. As a result, clay, silt, and fine sand particles settle almost at the same rate and the final sediment formed consists of particles with a very loose card house-like structure. Hence the marine sediments can be considered loose sediments, usually formed with high void ratios. Problems are associated with these fine-grained soils deposited at a soft consistency. Fine-grained soils are very sensitive to changes in the stress system, moisture content and system chemistry of the pore fluid. In addition to these, the problems arising out of high compressibility and low shear strength of these weak marine deposits expose geotechnical engineers to considerable changes in the construction of various coastal and offshore structures. In this present investigation, the performance of the potassium chloride on the strength characteristics of the marine clay has been studied and also the reinforcement effect on the improvement of load bearing capacity of the KCl treated marine clay has been studied.