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What Is Ground Improvement and Why Is It Required?
What Is Ground Improvement and Why Is It Required?
INTRODUCTION
What is ground improvement and Why is it required?
Soil as an engineering material has different uses:
• To support and anchor structures
• As a construction material in earth structures such
as embankments, dams, etc.
Soil has many different types of properties. Some of
these properties may fall short of requirement for a
particular type of use of soil.
The measures to improve the soil in situ upon the
deficient properties to suit for the required uses are
called ground improvement methods.
Introduction
Common Problems Soils
• Soils with inadequate mechanical properties
• Swelling soil (expansive soil)
• Collapsible soils
• Soft soils
• Organic soils and peaty soils
• Sands and gravelly deposits
• Karst land with sinkhole formations
• Foundations on dumps and sanitary landfills
• Dredged materials
• Soils containing hazardous materials and mine spoils
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Introduction
What can be done when problem soil is
encountered
• Avoid the particular site
• Remove and replace unsuitable soils
• Modify the design of the structure according to
soil condition
• Use effective foundation design for the particular
soil
• Use ground improvement techniques
Hydraulic Methods
Dewatering
• Pumping out
• Electro-osmosis
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Electro-kinetic Stabilisation
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Electro-kinetic Stabilisation
• Clays having higher cation exchange capacity (CEC) have more
cations which can be replaced or displaced. Such soils are
suitable for electro-osmosis.
• If groundwater has dissolved ionic salts, such soils are also
suitable for electro-osmosis.
• The electrodes, particularly the cathodes are made of hollow
pipes, which are used as wells.
• Water travelling to electrodes are pumped out from there.
• During the electro-osmosis process, many water molecules
dissociate to become H+ and O2- ions. The H+ ions move to
cathodes and O2- ions move to anodes where they become H2
and O2 gases. This also reduces the amount of water in soil.
Electro-kinetic Stabilisation
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Electro-kinetic Stabilisation
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Electro-kinetic Stabilisation
Electro-osmotic discharge, = , where
• ke = electro-osmotic permeability (cm/s per V/cm),
• ie= electro-potential gradient (volt/cm) = voltage applied across the
electrodes divided by the distance between the electrodes, and
• A=area of flow between the electrodes.
For most soils, ke is in the range of (0.4-0.6) x10-4 cm/s. Unlike
hydraulic conductivity, it does not depend upon grain size.
The applied voltage should not be more than 0.5 V/cm to
prevent higher loss of energy because of heating.
The anode tubes are usually 25mm or 50mm in diameter. They
should not be spaced closer than 0.7m, otherwise two or more
anodes may behave as a single one.
The electrodes may corrode very fast. They should be replaced
when current drops below 30% of the initial.
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Preloading
• Simple preloading
• Preloading with vertical sand drains
• Wick drains or sand wicks or PVDs
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Surface Compaction
• To increase dry density of soil
• Control parameters:
o Thickness of layer
o Moisture content
o Number of passes
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Induced settlement:
Soil type settlement in % of depth
Natural clays 1-3%
Clay fills 3-5%
Natural sands 3-10%
Granular fills 5-15%
Peaty soil 7-20%
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Verification of Improvement:
Improvement in soil properties upon heavy
tamping has to be verified and reported.
In-situ tests before and after heavy tamping are
conducted for verification of improvement :
o SPT
o Dynamic Cone Penetration Test (DCPT)
o Static Cone Penetration Test (SCPT)
o Menard’s pressure meter test, etc.
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Spacing
1.8-4.2m
Clip: Vibro-compaction Technique
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Blast Densification or
Explosive Compaction
• Blast-densification is a ground improvement technique,
which uses energy from confined detonations of explosive
charges placed within the soil mass.
• It is usually applied for densifying loose, relatively clean,
cohesionless soils.
• It increases the density of loose granular deposits, above or
below the water table.
• The explosive waves temporarily liquefy the soil, causing
the soil particles to rearrange to a higher relative density as
excess pore pressure dissipate.
• It has been used to treat soils to depths of up to 40m.
• As depth increases, the amount of the charge (explosive)
necessary to destroy the soil structure and liquefy the soil
increases.
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Blast Densification
• Excess pore pressure and settlement due to
explosion are related to the ratio where
Nh= Hopkin’s number = W1/3/R
W= weight of explosives, in equivalent to
kilograms of TNT (1 Kg of TNT ≡ 4612 KJ of
energy)
R= radial distance from point of explosion, m.
• If Nh is less (0.09 to 0.15), liquefaction does not
occur and the equation can be used to estimate
safe distance from explosion.
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Blast Densification
• Following relationships were obtained for
some sandy soils in Netherlands based on
statistical analyses of field results:
ΔU/ σ’= 1.65+0.65lnNh
Δh/h = 2.73+0.9lnNh
• For optimum densification, the ratio of ΔU/ σ’
should be more than 0.8.
Clip
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Courtesy Keller
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Courtesy Keller
Clip 42
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