Effect of Zostera Marina Plant on Zeolite-Bentonite Mixtures

In this period when sustainability becomes more important day by day, the demand for alternative additive materials, especially those that are environmentally friendly, sustainable and easily accessible, is increasing. This study represents a first for the use of seaweed species, whose scientific name is Zostera marina, in soil improvement studies. Many different additives have been used to improve the engineering properties of soils before, and the first additive material used in plant origin is dried seaweed selected in this study. The leaves of Zostera marina, which is a sea plant, are used for building insulation, coating, etc. areas are used. Especially in cold countries such as Denmark, coatings have been used entirely by utilizing seaweed for roof insulation and when resistance to thermal changes is required. In this study, by adding 10% and 20% dried seaweed additive to zeolite-bentonite mixtures compaction, consolidation and shear strength parameters from direct shear and unconfined compression tests were determined. Consolidation tests were carried out at room temperature and an average of 40 °C, considering the increase in soil temperature due to seasonal changes. Thus, the behavior of seaweed with increasing temperature was also investigated. While determining the unconfined compressive strength, the 0–14 day curing effect of the samples was investigated. The test results showed that dried seaweed added zeolite-bentonite mixtures did not increase the settlement amount under 40 °C and the unconfined compressive strength of 10% seaweed added mixture increased approximately 5.1 times after 14 days of curing. The fact that Zostera marina does not increase the compression amount in the presence of increasing temperature and even reduces it by 4% and 13% has given a positive direction to other thermal experiments and parameters planned to be conducted in the future.