An integrated method for the rapid dewatering and solidification/stabilization of dredged contaminated sediment with a high water content

Abstract

• An integrated method, called PHDVPSS, was proposed for treating DCS.

• The PHDVPSS method showed superior performance compared to conventional method.

• Using the method, water content (%) of DCS decreased from 300 to<150 in 3 days.

• The 56-day UCS from this method is 12‒17 times higher than conventional method.

• Relative to PC, GGBS-MgO binder yielded greater reduction in the leachability.

To more efficiently treat the dredged contaminated sediment (DCS) with a high water content, this study proposes an integrated method (called PHDVPSS) that uses the solidifying/stabilizing (S/S) agents and prefabricated horizontal drain (PHD) assisted by vacuum pressure (VP). Using this method, dewatering and solidification/stabilization can be carried out simultaneously such that the treatment time can be significantly shortened and the treatment efficacy can be significantly improved. A series of model tests was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of the proposed method. Experimental results indicated that the proposed PHDVPSS method showed superior performance compared to the conventional S/S method that uses Portland cement (PC) directly without prior dewatering. The 56-day unconfined compressive strength of DCS treated by the proposed method with GGBS-MgO as the binder is 12‒17 times higher than that by the conventional S/S method. DCS treated by the PHDVPSS method exhibited continuous decrease in leaching concentration of Zn with increasing curing age. The reduction of Zn leachability is more obvious when using GGBS-MgO as the binder than when using PC, because GGBS-MgO increased the residual fraction and decreased the acid soluble fraction of Zn. The microstructure analysis reveals the formation of hydrotalcite in GGBS-MgO binder, which resulted in higher mechanical strength and higher Zn stabilization efficiency.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Dredged contaminated sediment / Dewatering / Solidification/stabilization / Vacuum preloading / Prefabricated horizontal drain / Heavy metal

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