Calcium sulfoaluminate cement (CSA) was used to stabilize a type of marine soft soil in Dalian China. Unconfined compressive strength (UCS) of CSA-stabilized soil was tested and compared to ordinary Portland cement (OPC); meanwhile the influence of amounts of gypsum in CSA and cement contents in stabilized soils on the strength of stabilized soils were investigated. X-ray diffraction (XRD) tests were employed to detect generated hydration products, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was conducted to analyze microstructures of CSA-stabilized soils. The results showed that UCS of CSA-stabilized soils at 1, 3, and 28 d firstly increased and then decreased with contents of gypsum increasing from 0 to 40 wt.%, and CSA-stabilized soils exhibited the highest UCS when the content of gypsum equaled 25 wt.%. When the mixing amounts of OPC and CSA were the same, CSA-stabilized soils had a significantly higher early strength (1 and 3 d) than OPC. For CSA-stabilized soil with 0 wt.% gypsum, monosulfate (AFm) was detected as a major hydration product. As for CSA-stabilized soil with certain amounts of gypsum, the intensity of ettringite (Aft) was significantly higher than that in the sample hydrating without gypsum, but a tiny peak of AFm also could be detected in the sample with 15 wt.% gypsum at 28 d. Additionally, the intensity of AFt increased with the contents of gypsum increasing from 0 to 25 wt.%. When contents of gypsum increased from 25 to 40 wt.%, the intensity of AFt tended to decrease slightly, and residual gypsum could be detected in the sample with 40 wt.% gypsum at 28 d. In the microstructure of OPC-stabilized soils, hexagonal plate-shaped calcium hydroxide (CH) constituted skeleton structures, and clusters of hydrated calcium silicates (C-S-H) gel adhered to particles of soils. In the microstructure of CSA-stabilized soils, AFt constituted skeleton structures, and the crystalline sizes of ettringite increased with contents of gypsum increasing; meanwhile, clusters of the aluminum hydroxide (AH₃) phase could be observed to adhere to particles of soils and strengthen the interaction.

Steel slag has become a promising supplementary cementitious material for soft soil stabilization. However, there is a lack of research on the integrated assessment of cement–steel-slag-stabilized soft soils (SCSs) from the performance, environmental, and economic perspectives. In this study, an ontology framework for the sustainable evaluation of SCSs was developed based on the life cycle assessment (LCA) approach, which combined a knowledge base with semantic web rules to achieve an automated decision design for soft soil stabilization, considering comprehensive benefits. The ontology framework was applied to a marine soft soil stabilization case to verify its scientificity and practicability and to evaluate the influence of the fineness, carbonation degree, and substitution ratio of steel slag on the sustainability of SCSs. The results show that, when compared to pure-cement-stabilized soil (S-C), using 10% and 20% of fine steel slag carbonated for 18 h (FSS-C-18h) as cement substitutes can significantly reduce carbon emissions and costs while achieving a similar strength performance as S-C, demonstrating the feasibility of steel slag as a sustainable supplementary cementitious material for soft soil stabilization.

The failure of the interfacial transition zone has been identified as the primary cause of damage and deterioration in cement-based materials. To further understand the interfacial failure mechanism, interfacial composite structures between the main hydration products of ordinary Portland cement (OPC), calcium silicate hydrate (CSH) and calcium hydroxide (Ca(OH)₂), and silica (SiO₂) were constructed while considering their anisotropy. Afterwards, uniaxial tensile tests were conducted using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Our results showed that the interfacial zones (IZs) of interfacial composite structures tended to have relatively lower densities than those of the bulk, and the anisotropy of the hydration products had almost no effect on the IZ being a low-density zone. Interfacial composite structures with different configurations exhibited diverse nanomechanical behaviors in terms of their ultimate strength, stress–strain relationship and fracture evaluation. A higher strain rate contributed to a higher ultimate strength and a more prolonged decline in the residual strength. In the interfacial composite structures, both CSH and Ca(OH)₂ exhibited ruptures of the Ca-O bond as the primary atomic pair during the tensile process. The plastic damage characteristics of the interfacial composite structures during the tensile process were assessed by analyzing the normalized number of broken Ca-O bonds, which also aligned with the atomic chain break characteristics evident in the per-atom stress map.

Density functional theory (DFT) simulation has been recently introduced to understand the doping behavior of impurities in clinker phases. P-doped ye’elimite, a typical doping clinker phase, tends to form when phosphogypsum is used to manufacture calcium sulfoaluminate cement (CSA) clinkers. However, the substitution mechanism of P has not been uncovered yet. In this study, the influence of different doping amounts of P on the crystalline and electronic structure of ye’elimite was investigated using backscattered scanning electron microscopy–energy X-ray dispersive spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction tests, Rietveld quantitative phase analysis, and DFT simulations. Furthermore, the substitution preference of P in ye’elimite was revealed. Our results showed that increasing the doping amount of P increased the impurity contents in CSA clinkers, transforming the ye’elimite crystal system from the orthorhombic to the cubic system and decreasing the interplanar spacing of ye’elimite. Based on the calculation results of the defect formation energies, additional energies were required for P atoms to substitute Ca/Al atoms compared with those required for P atoms to substitute S atoms in both orthorhombic and cubic systems of ye’elimite. Combined calculation results of the bond length–bond order and partial density of states showed that the doped P atoms preferably substituted S atoms; the second possible substituted atoms were Al atoms, while there was only a slight possibility for substitution of Ca atoms. The substitution of P atoms for S atoms can be verified based on the elemental distribution in P-doped ye’elimite and the increasing residual CaSO₄ contents. The transition of the crystal system and a decrease in the interplanar spacing for ye’elimite can also prove that the substitution of P atoms for Al atoms occurred substantially.

Ye’elimite is a dominant phase in calcium sulfoaluminate cement, which is a promising alternative type of cementitious binder. Ca_3.8Na_0.2Al_5.6Fe_0.2Si_0.2SO₁₆ (abbreviated as ss-C₄A₃$) is a kind of typical doped solid-solution ye’elimite. In this study, the formation process of ss-C₄A₃$ was investigated. Clinkers of ss-C₄A₃$ were sintered at various temperatures for different holding times. X-ray diffraction tests and Rietveld quantitative phase analysis were conducted to determine the phase compositions of the clinkers. Meanwhile, the formation process of ss-C₄A₃$ was analyzed by kinetic theory. The results show that solid reactions between intermediate phases (calcium aluminate phases) and anhydrite mainly resulted in the formation of ss-C₄A₃$. In the conditions of 1150–1250 °C, ss-C₄A₃$ tended to be formed and stable until 4 h. However, when the sintering temperature was 1300 °C, the ss-C₄A₃$ decreased to generate calcium aluminate phases after 2 h. Compared to other kinetic models, the three-dimensional diffusion model mostly conformed with the formation process of ss-C₄A₃$, and the fitting results obtained by the Jander model exhibited the highest correlation coefficients. The activation energy of ss-C₄A₃$ formation equaled 285.6 kJ/mol, which was smaller than that of stoichiometric ye’elimite.