Modification of marine clay for sustainable concrete application

In recent years, the demand for aggregate, the main component in concrete, was kept increasing in the construction industry. Most construction sites were using natural aggregates, e.g., Rock and sand. As the natural resources were limited, and the depletion of natural resources became the principal...

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Main Author: Liu, Yuxin
Other Authors: Qian Shunzhi
Format: Final Year Project (FYP)
Language:English
Published: Nanyang Technological University 2021
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/154395
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author Liu, Yuxin
author2 Qian Shunzhi
author_facet Qian Shunzhi
Liu, Yuxin
author_sort Liu, Yuxin
collection NTU
description In recent years, the demand for aggregate, the main component in concrete, was kept increasing in the construction industry. Most construction sites were using natural aggregates, e.g., Rock and sand. As the natural resources were limited, and the depletion of natural resources became the principal concern. In this situation, it was an urgent call to apply sustainable engineering in every engineering discipline. On the other hand, it was expensive to import construction materials from other countries. Reusing locally available waste materials could help to reduce the cost. Moreover, during excavation, there was a stable supply of about 12-million-ton Marine Clay (MC) each year in Singapore, which made it necessary to investigate the use of local waste MC. Although fly ash or bottom ash has been broadly investigated as both filler or binder in concrete, there still existed more viable options to use marine clay due to local abundance and wide availability. (Zainuddin et al., 2019) Artificial aggregates have been broadly researched and applied so far, but MC has yet to be adopted in artificial aggregates fields due to its high liquid limit and water content. Consequently, it was hard to use MC as filler material in a geotechnical application or sand replacement in concrete. In this FYP research, local waste MC was adopted as the primary raw materials in producing artificial aggregates to improve sustainability. A cold bonding process was applied in this research, rather than the traditional sintering process considering the energy consumption during the sintering process. Finally, sustainable concrete with reasonable mechanical property can be produced with the incorporation of cold-bonding MC aggregates. In this study, various parameters, such as water addition rate and amount, air pressure, etc., were optimized to improve the pelletizing efficiency and performance of MC CBA (Cold Bonded Aggregates). Different MC: OPC ratios (from 0.95:0.05 to 0.6:0.4) were adopted to pelletize CBA, and their performance was compared accordingly. Aggregate particle crushing test and concrete cube compression test were conducted. It turned out that 70% MC as the main matrix with 30% cement obtained good particle crush strength and cube compression strength. In addition, an optical microscope and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was employed to identify the morphology and microstructure of MC CBA. In addition, Calcinated MC (600 ℃) was also adopted in CBA. At 7 &28 days, calcined MC specimens showed better particle crushing strength and cube compression strength than raw MC ones. The compressive strength of the cube with calcinated MC CBA could achieve 40 MPa. Besides, the microstructure of calcinated MC CBA was denser with lower porosity.
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spelling ntu-10356/1543952021-12-23T12:09:14Z Modification of marine clay for sustainable concrete application Liu, Yuxin Qian Shunzhi School of Civil and Environmental Engineering SZQian@ntu.edu.sg Engineering::Civil engineering In recent years, the demand for aggregate, the main component in concrete, was kept increasing in the construction industry. Most construction sites were using natural aggregates, e.g., Rock and sand. As the natural resources were limited, and the depletion of natural resources became the principal concern. In this situation, it was an urgent call to apply sustainable engineering in every engineering discipline. On the other hand, it was expensive to import construction materials from other countries. Reusing locally available waste materials could help to reduce the cost. Moreover, during excavation, there was a stable supply of about 12-million-ton Marine Clay (MC) each year in Singapore, which made it necessary to investigate the use of local waste MC. Although fly ash or bottom ash has been broadly investigated as both filler or binder in concrete, there still existed more viable options to use marine clay due to local abundance and wide availability. (Zainuddin et al., 2019) Artificial aggregates have been broadly researched and applied so far, but MC has yet to be adopted in artificial aggregates fields due to its high liquid limit and water content. Consequently, it was hard to use MC as filler material in a geotechnical application or sand replacement in concrete. In this FYP research, local waste MC was adopted as the primary raw materials in producing artificial aggregates to improve sustainability. A cold bonding process was applied in this research, rather than the traditional sintering process considering the energy consumption during the sintering process. Finally, sustainable concrete with reasonable mechanical property can be produced with the incorporation of cold-bonding MC aggregates. In this study, various parameters, such as water addition rate and amount, air pressure, etc., were optimized to improve the pelletizing efficiency and performance of MC CBA (Cold Bonded Aggregates). Different MC: OPC ratios (from 0.95:0.05 to 0.6:0.4) were adopted to pelletize CBA, and their performance was compared accordingly. Aggregate particle crushing test and concrete cube compression test were conducted. It turned out that 70% MC as the main matrix with 30% cement obtained good particle crush strength and cube compression strength. In addition, an optical microscope and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was employed to identify the morphology and microstructure of MC CBA. In addition, Calcinated MC (600 ℃) was also adopted in CBA. At 7 &28 days, calcined MC specimens showed better particle crushing strength and cube compression strength than raw MC ones. The compressive strength of the cube with calcinated MC CBA could achieve 40 MPa. Besides, the microstructure of calcinated MC CBA was denser with lower porosity. Bachelor of Engineering (Civil) 2021-12-23T12:09:13Z 2021-12-23T12:09:13Z 2021 Final Year Project (FYP) Liu, Y. (2021). Modification of marine clay for sustainable concrete application. Final Year Project (FYP), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. https://hdl.handle.net/10356/154395 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/154395 en EM-08 application/pdf Nanyang Technological University
spellingShingle Engineering::Civil engineering
Liu, Yuxin
Modification of marine clay for sustainable concrete application
title Modification of marine clay for sustainable concrete application
title_full Modification of marine clay for sustainable concrete application
title_fullStr Modification of marine clay for sustainable concrete application
title_full_unstemmed Modification of marine clay for sustainable concrete application
title_short Modification of marine clay for sustainable concrete application
title_sort modification of marine clay for sustainable concrete application
topic Engineering::Civil engineering
url https://hdl.handle.net/10356/154395
work_keys_str_mv AT liuyuxin modificationofmarineclayforsustainableconcreteapplication