Geotechnical Performance of Dredged Material—Steel Slag Fines Blends: Laboratory and Field Evaluation

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Abstract
This paper contains the results of a combined laboratory and field demonstration project exploring the use of dredged material (DM) blended with steel slag fines [SSF; 9.5 mm (3/8 in.) minus] as synthetic fill materials. The granular nature [a well graded sand (SW) soil], mineralogy, reactivity, and residual lime content of the SSF media make it well suited for blending with DM high-plasticity organic (OH) soil, so that geotechnical and environmental soil improvement occur simultaneously with one amendment. The source materials (100% DM, 100% SSF) were evaluated along with 80/20, 60/40, 50/50, 40/60, and 20/80 DM-SSF blends (dry weight basis), where the DM content is reported first. Key findings include that the 100% DM had a ϕCIU¯′ of 27.3°, which increased to a peak ϕCIU¯′ value of 45° for the 50/50 DM-SSF blend. The hydraulic conductivity (k) of the 100% DM (10-8 cm/s) remained relatively constant until SSF content reached 80%, where an abrupt increase to 10-5 cm/s was observed. The field de...