Search

The research shows the results of a micro to macro testing programme carried out on contaminated marine sediments from a natural deposit to assess the effects of bio-chemo-mechanical coupled processes which may act in complex natural environments and affect the geotechnical properties of the clays. The research has been triggered by the emblematic case of the contaminated Mar Piccolo (MP) basin in Taranto (Southern Italy), where the high degree of pollution recorded in the clayey sediments at the sea bottom, has been found to worsen water quality and promote bioaccumulation of pollutants in several species. Several samples of sediments collected in the basin from the top layer exhibited peculiar geotechnical properties, in terms of plasticity and activity indexes, compressibility and hydraulic permeability. The results of the geotechnical testing were interpreted taking into account the XRD mineralogical results and the chemical composition of the soil matrix. Furthermore, thermogravimetry tests results were examined to explore the nature of the sediment skeleton and of its organic matter content, based on the main thermal reactions occurring within different temperature ranges. Lastly, scanning electron microscopy and mercury intrusion porosimetry were performed to assess the sediment pore size distribution as well as their content in microfossils and diatoms. The original multiscale analysis carried out on some selected sediment samples showed that the biogeochemical degradation of organic matter and the presence of microfossils and diatoms significantly affect the micro to macro behaviour of marine sediments.

The article reports the results of an experimental activity conducted on dredged fine-grained marine sediments and aimed to find out novel eco-friendly solutions for their mechanical stabilisation. The main idea of this research is to use seashells, i.e., another waste material, to partially replace cement binders in the mechanical stabilisation of sediments for the production of a new stable material that can potentially be used in construction. To this aim, an original procedure has been developed to obtain a powder of mussel shells without their calcination. Physical properties, one-dimensional compression behaviour and permeability of the novel mixtures including sediments, mussel shell powder and cements are presented for different curing times. The efficacy of the solutions is assessed also by comparison with the performance of control mixtures prepared by mixing the same sediments with cement only. The effects of the different treatments on the soil properties were analysed, demonstrating multiple beneficial effects of using the mussel shell powder. Evidence is provided that seashells represent a viable alternative to cement, as they were found to be as effective as traditional hydraulic binders, when replacing them up to 1/4, in enhance geomechanical and geochemical performance of the stabilized material.

The presence of bound water in clay has a significant impact on the physical and chemical properties of clay, particularly its strength, permeability, and creep behavior. In this paper, the bound water in clay has been studied from the perspective of water potential. Initially, the adsorption isotherms of powders and consolidated samples for Na- and Ca-bentonite and illite were measured, and the bound water content was determined by subtracting the capillary water in the isotherms, with the capillary water being calculated by mercury intrusion porosimetry tests. The results indicated that bound water is independent of the void ratio and pore structure of clay, which is consistent with previous studies. Then, metadynamics was conducted to determine the adsorption free energy landscapes of the three clays, and the lowest suctions of the three clay minerals were determined to be −1.7 , −5.4 , and −2.1 GPa , respectively. Finally, through a comparison of the simulations and experiments in this study and in the literature, three important conclusions were drawn. Firstly, the lowest water potential for montmorillonite exhibits a linear relationship with the hydration free energy of exchangeable cations. Secondly, the critical water potential for tightly bound water is determined as the first inflection point in the relationship between water potential and water content, and the critical value of montmorillonite is found to be correlated to the valence of exchangeable cations. Lastly, the boundary between loosely bound water and capillary water is determined as the starting point of capillary water formation. Overall, this research highlights the importance of considering water potential as a key factor in understanding the behavior of bound water in clay. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A detailed multi-scale investigation of the geotechnical, chemical and mineralogical properties was conducted on contaminated sediment samples collected within the Mar Piccolo, a marine basin in the south of Italy. The basin is located close to one of the most important industrial sites in Europe, which has also been declared 'at high risk of environmental crisis' and prioritised for remediation activities. A multidisciplinary investigation campaign showed that the samples collected close to the sea floor are characterised by high values of both heavy metals and organic pollutants and by the presence of significant amount of organic matter. Several samples in the top layer exhibited peculiar geotechnical properties, in terms of plasticity and activity indexes, compressibility and hydraulic permeability. While the prime suspect for such unconventional behaviour was chemo-mechanical coupling between the soil skeleton and contaminants, it turned out that the biogeochemical degradation of organic matter and the presence of microfossils and diatoms is likely to affect significantly the micro to macro behaviour of polluted marine sediments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smectites, like other clay minerals, have been shown to promote ice nucleation in immersion freezing mode and likely contribute to the population of ice nucleating particles (INPs) in the atmosphere. Smectites are layered aluminosilicates, which form platelets that depending on composition might swell or even delaminate in water by intercalation of water molecules between their layers. They comprise among others montmorillonites, hectorites, beidellites, and nontronites. In this study, we investigate the ice nucleation (IN) activity of a variety of natural and synthetic smectite samples with different exchangeable cations. The montmorillonites STx-1b and SAz-1, the nontronite SWa-1, and the hectorite SHCa-1 are all rich in Ca2+ as the exchangeable cation, the bentonite MX-80 is rich in Na+ with a minor contribution of Ca2+, the synthetic Laponite is a pure Na+ smectite. The bentonite SAu-1 is rich in Mg2+ with a minor contribution of Na+, and the synthetic interstratified mica-montmorillonite Barasym carries NH4+ as the exchangeable cation. In emulsion freezing experiments, all samples except Laponite exhibited one or two heterogeneous freezing peaks with onsets between 239 K and 248 K and a quite large variation in IN activity, yet without clear correlation with the exchangeable cation, with the type of smectite, or with mineralogical impurities in the samples. To further investigate the role of the exchangeable cation, we performed ion exchange experiments. Replacing NH4+ with Ca2+ in Barasym reduced its IN activity to the one of other Ca-rich montmorillonites. In contrast, stepwise exchange of the native cations in STx-1b once with Y3+ and once with Cu2+ showed no influence on IN activity. However, aging of smectite suspensions in pure water up to several months revealed a decrease in IN activity with time, which we attribute to the delamination of smectites in aqueous suspensions, which may proceed over long timescales. The dependence of IN activity on platelet stacking and thickness can be explained if the hydroxylated chains forming at the edges are the location of ice nucleation in smectites, since the edges need to be thick enough to host a critical ice embryo. We hypothesize that at least three smectite layers need to be stacked together to host a critical ice embryo on clay mineral edges and that the larger the surface edge area is the higher the freezing temperature. Comparison with reported platelet thicknesses of the investigated smectite samples suggests that the observed freezing temperatures are indeed limited by the surface area provided by the mostly very thin platelets. Specifically, Laponite, which did not show any IN activity, is known to delaminate into single layers of about 1 nm thickness, which would be too thin to host a critical ice embryo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]