Laboratory test of waste mud treated by the flocculation-vacuum-curing integrated method

An integrated method of flocculation, vacuum preloading and solidification using curing agents was proposed to treat waste engineering mud. Flocculation, vacuum preloading and solidification work together to turn waste mud into cured soil that can be used as filling material for embankments or foundation pit filling. Model tests were carried out to verify the effectiveness of the method. A series of vane shear tests, unconfined compression tests, nuclear magnetic resonance tests and scanning electron microscopy tests were conducted to compare the strength of cured soil after treatment with different methods and investigate the solidification mechanism. The results showed that the flocculant accelerates the drainage speed in the early stage of vacuum drainage, and the curing agent consumes water and generates hydrates to fill the soil pores in the later stage of vacuum preloading to achieve rapid solidification of soil. Compared with vacuum preloading + flocculation method, the proposed method can achieve a significantly higher strength of solidified soil. The experimental results indicate the effectiveness of the proposed integrated treatment method. Cement + retarder + quicklime is an ideal combination of curing agents for the proposed method to treat waste mud from bored pile construction.

Automated summary

An integrated method of flocculation, vacuum preloading, and solidification using curing agents was proposed to treat waste engineering mud, which showed significantly higher strength of solidified soil compared to traditional methods. Experiment results indicated the effectiveness of the proposed integrated treatment method with cement + retarder + quicklime as an ideal combination of curing agents.