Influence of curing stress on compression characteristic of cement-treated dredged slurry at high water contents

This paper presents an experimental investigation on the compression behavior of cement-treated dredged slurry at high water content considering the effect of applied curing stress. A series of one-dimensional compression tests were performed on treated samples at various water contents, cement contents, and curing times with and without applied curing stress. Tests result showed that the void ratio versus logarithmic loading pressure curve of all tested specimens exhibits the same decreasing pattern with an obvious yield phenomenon. The void ratio slightly reduces in the pre-yield stage while significantly decreasing with logarithmic loading pressure in the post-yield stage. The magnitude compression index C-s in the pre-yield stage is much lower than that of the value C-c in the post-yield stage. At the same water content and cement content, when the curing pressure is applied, the magnitudes of C-s and C-c are reduced. The yield stress of treated dredged clay samples cured at the same curing time with applied curing stress is higher than that without applied curing stress, indicating that the presence of curing stress has a positive effect on the acquisition of yield stress. It is an effective way to apply curing stress in the actual engineering practice.