Effect of Lime on Compaction, Strength and Consolidation Characteristics of Pontian Marine Clay

Marine clay is a problematic construction material, which is often encountered in Malaysian coastal area. Previous researchers showed that lime stabilization effectively enhanced the engineering properties of clay. For soft clay, both strength and consolidation characteristics are equally important to be fully understood for design purpose. This paper presented the effect of lime on compaction, strength and consolidation characteristics of Pontian marine clay. Compaction, unconfined compression, direct shear, Oedometer and falling head permeability tests were conducted on unstabilized and lime stabilized samples at various ages. Specimens were prepared by compaction method based on 95 percent maximum dry density at the wetter side of compaction curve. It was found that lime successfully increased the strength, stiffness and workability of Pontian marine clay; however, the permeability was reduced. Unconfined compressive strength of stabilized soil was increased by 49 percent at age of 56 days whereas compressibility and permeability was reduced by 48 and 67 percent, respectively. From laboratory tests, phenomenon of inconsistency in engineering characteristics was observed for lime stabilized samples below age of 28 days. This strongly proved that lime stabilized soil underwent modification phase before stabilization phase which provided the long term improvement.