Shear strength-related properties of clayey soil mixed with converter steelmaking slag under overburden pressure for short-time curing

Abstract

The mixture of clayey soil and steelmaking slag has the property of solidification, where the mixture is consolidated as it solidifies. This study examines the effects of the consolidation of the mixture owing to overburden pressure during curing on properties of its shear strength. A unconfined compression test and a consolidated-undrained triaxial compression test (CU test) were performed on specimens that had been cured while applying an overburden pressure to clayey soil mixed with steelmaking slag. The results of the unconfined compression test revealed that the relationship between overburden pressure and qu at the same duration of curing was linear, and both the slope and intercept of the primary equation increased with the duration of curing. The CU test showed that an overburden pressure of 50 kN/m during curing increased the value of qmax by 2.7 times when the mixture was cured under atmospheric pressure for 28 days. In addition, regardless of the presence of overburden pressure during curing, as solidification progressed, a peak appeared in the q–p' plane beyond q/p'= 3.