Effect of lime treatment on geotechnical properties of Dunkirk sediments in France

The increasing cost associated with high-quality materials has lead to the need for sediments to be treated and then used in road construction in the context of durable development. Therefore, the modification and stabilisation of Dunkirk marine sediments by using lime is necessary to study for their potential use in road construction. Based on the physical characteristics of untreated sediments, a series of laboratory tests to investigate the geotechnical properties of untreated sediments and lime-treated sediments, such as unconfined compressive strength tests, standard oedometer tests, direct shear tests and triaxial tests, were performed. Lime was added in percentages of 3% and 6%, by weight of dry sediments. The test results show a significant improvement in unconfined compressive strength and shear strength due to the addition of lime. From the strain–stress relationship of compressive strength tests, it can be found that the failure mode of solidified sediments develops gradually from plastic failure to brittle failure, while the failure strength increases and the failure strain decreases with lime content. Compared with untreated sediments, the shear strength parameters of solidified sediments determined by direct shear tests, such as internal friction angle and cohesion, are increased owing to the pozzolanic reaction between lime and clay minerals. Using the oedometer apparatus, it is observed that after lime treatment, the preconsolidation pressure, the coefficient of consolidation and the compression index are increased, while the swelling index is decreased. The characteristics of the deviator stress–axial strain relation and the pore water pressure distribution under different confining stresses are compared with untreated and treated sediments, and the effect of lime content on cohesion and internal friction angle determined by triaxial tests is discussed.