GROUND IMPROVEMENT

TECHNIQUES

MODULE 1
Role of ground improvement in foundation engineering
• Generally Engineers design Foundation and other structures based on soil
investigation.
• If soil good at lesser depth shallow foundation can be laid, if hard stratum available
at higher depth, Deep foundation can be laid.
• In some cases, Deep foundation becomes uneconomical, it becomes a problem
practically. So there need arises to improve the ground conditions by ground
improvement.
• Ground improvement is rapidly developing filed because good sites for construction
are limited day by day. So improving characteristics of soil at site, that consists of
increasing shear strength, decreasing compressibility of soil. So that Bearing
capacity increases which reduces settlements.
• As more and more land becomes subject to urban or industrial development, good
construction sites and borrow areas are difficult to find and the soil improvement
alternatives becomes the best option, technically and economically.
Where a project encounters difficult foundation conditions, possible alternative
solutions are:
• Avoid the particular site: Relocate a planned highway or development site.
• Design the planned structure accordingly: Some of the many possible approaches
are to: - Use a raft foundation supported by piles, - Design a very stiff structure
which is not damaged by settlement, - Or choose a very flexible construction
which accommodates differential movement or allows for compensation.
• Remove and replace unsuitable soils: Remove organic topsoil, which is soft,
compressible, and volumetrically unstable. This is a standard precaution in road
or foundation construction.
• Attempt to modify the existing ground.
 Objective of Ground Improvement Techniques
The most common traditional objectives include improvement of the soil and ground
for use as a foundation or construction material. The typical Engineering objectives
have been:
• Increasing shear strength, durability, stiffness and stability
• Reducing undesirable properties (eg. Shrink/ swell potential, compressibility,
liquefability)
• Modifying permeability, the rate of fluid to flow through a medium.
• Improving efficiency and productivity by using methods that save time and expense
The engineer must take a determination on how best to achieve the desired goals
required by providing a workable solution for each project encountered. Ground
improvement methods have provided adverse choice of approaches to solving these
challenges.
 Factors affecting choice of improvement method
• Soil type : this is one of the most important parameters that will control what approach or
materials will be applicable to only certain types of soil types and grain sizes
• Area , depth and location of treatment required- many ground improvement methods have
depth limitations that render them unsuitable for applications for deeper soil horizons.
• Desired/required soil properties- obviously, different methods are use to achieve different
engineering properties, and certain methods will provide various levels of uniformity to
improved sites.
• Availability of materials- Depending on the location of the project and materials required for
each feasible ground improvements approach.
• Availability of skills, local experience, and local preferences- While the engineer may possess
the knowledge and understanding of a preferred method.
• Environmental concerns- With a better understanding and a greater awareness of effects on
the natural environment, more attention have been placed on methods that assure less
environmental impacts.
• Economics- when all else has been considered, the final decision on choice of improvement
method will often come down to the ultimate cost of a proposed method, or cost will be the
deciding factor in choosing between two or more otherwise suitable method
Classification of Ground Modification Techniques
• Four groups of ground improvement Techniques are distinguished:
1. Mechanical modification
2. Hydraulic modification
3. Physical and chemical modification
4. Modification by inclusion and Confinement
a. Mechanical modification
• Mechanical techniques are the oldest techniques that are used to stabilize the soil layer.
• It involves the improvement of soil by physically changing its structure.
• Soil density is increased by the application of short-term external mechanical forces,
including Compaction of surface layers by: Static, Vibratory, Impact rollers, Plate vibrators,
Deep compaction by heavy tamping at the surface or vibration at depth.
• This can be also done by Remove and replacement of soil, Pre-loading technique, Vertical
drains, Ground freezing, Blasting, Wet soil mixing etc.

b. Hydraulic modification
• Free –pore water is forced out of the soil via (by means of) drains of wells.
• In coarse grained soils, this is achieved by lowering the ground water level through
pumping from boreholes or trenches.
• In fine-grained soils, the long term application of external loads (preloading) or electrical
forces (electro kinetic stabilization) is required.
c. Physical and chemical modification
• Additives include: - natural soils - industrial by-products or waste materials (fly ash,
slag), - Cementations and other chemicals (lime, cement) which react with each other
and the ground.
• When additives are injected via boreholes under pressure into the voids within the
ground or between it and a structure, the process is called GROUTING.
• Rigs with multiple injectors deliver the stabilizing fluid into the soil.
• The fluid will prefer to travel into cracks and fissures.
• Soil stabilization by heating the ground and by freezing the ground come under,
Thermal Methods of Modification.
• Heating evaporates water and causes permanent changes in the mineral structure of
soils.
• Freezing solidifies part or all of the water and bonds individual particles together.
d. Modification by inclusion and Confinement Reinforcement
•it is done by Fibers, Strips, Bars, Meshes and Fabrics. In-situ reinforcement is achieved
by nails and anchors.
 Different problematic soil
• Sometimes, due to some unforeseen reasons, the soil starts to expand or swell or can have
unexpected of the settlement, or can collapse.
• Due to some reasons, the structure of soil fabric can also change thus altering the strength of soil.
All of these can create a lot of problem for construction point of view.
• The soil cannot be used for construction purposes and thus need some improvement techniques.
Such soils are known as problematic soils.
• Types of problematic soil:
1. Collapsible soil
• A type of soil that is moisture sensitive is known as collapsible soil. It may be partially saturated soil,
which contain both air and water.
• This type of soil will carry a heavy load and will stay like that until it comes in contact with the
moisture.
• As soon as it comes in contact with moisture, the strength of the soil decreases and the volume of
the soil will decrease and the soil will have a very high settlement and thus, it will fail and will
collapse.
• The reason behind such collapsing is the structure of the soil particles. When soil get wet, soil
particles will rearrange itself for the saturation state of the soil. This rearrangement of soil structure
will cause the soil to settle down at a high speed and thus, the soil will collapse.
2. Expansive (swelling) soil
• In this type of soil, the volume of the soil generally increases as it comes in contact with water and
shrink when the water leaves the soil. This type of soil acts like a sponge.
• As the volume of the soil increases, it will exert a certain pressure on the building on any constructed
material on top of it and can cause cracks on it.
• These type of soil have a clay mineral known as “Montmorillonite” which is –vely charged. This
mineral has the ability to attract the bi polar water particles and fill the gap with water particles and
thus overall increasing the volume.
• an expansive soil can damage a building that is constructed over such soil by the uplift due to
increase in the volume of the soil. This uplift motion of the soil can put a pressure on the above
construction and thus causing cracks to develop on them.
• The water can enter in the soil during a raining season through these cracks on the surface of soil,
which increase the volume of the soil under the foundation, it expands and will exert a pressure on it
that can leads movement of foundation and thus whole building can collapse.
• As the water exit the soil, it will shrink and comes to its natural normal volume but the cracks that
were developed during the expansion of soil still stays there and it will take a lot of time to naturall fill
those cracks before another expansion.
3. Soft soils
• Water content is very high in this type of soils.
• Hence modification is required to reduce the water level.
• Eg: Marine clay, peat
4. Karst deposits
• These are formed by the dissolution of soluble rocks like lime stone, gypsum etc.
• It has very less density.
• They are characterized by large sink holes and caves.
5. Sandy Soil
• It is a type of soil that has all the particles of sand present in it.
• This type of soil has very large particles and minimum to no clay present in it.
• This type of soil is granular. In its composition, it has almost 70% sand, 30% silt and clay.
• As the sandy sand has granular particles and particles have larger size so they do not perform the
required compaction like clay and silt in the soil. That is why sandy soils are not recommended for
construction. However they can be used when there is no any other soil available.
Solutions or Alternatives for problematic soils
• Avoid the particular site.
• Design the construction accordingly.
• Remove and replace the unsuitable soil.
• Modify the existing soil.
• Reduce the effect of contaminated soil.
selection of suitable ground improvement based on
the soil condition
Improvement method Type of soil
Soil Replacement Soft soil
Water removal Underlying compressible cohesive soil
Dynamic compaction - cohesion less soil above water table
Vibro compaction – cohesion less soil with <20 % fines
Site strengthening methods
Vibro replacement – soft cohesive soil
Vibro displacement – stiffer cohesive soil
Grouting Coarse and fine grained soil
Heating – cohesive soil
Thermal method
Freezing – cohesive soil above water table
Geo synthetics - All soil types and as reinforcement for soft soil
 Emerging trends in ground improvement
• Environmental geotechniques and solid waste management using Ground
improvement technique.
• Containment and constructive use of waste materials
• Low cost technologies with soil and additives
• Usage of Geosynthetics such as geocells, geogrid, geonet etc.
• Biotechnical stabilization – use of grass, bamboo and enzymes for stabilisation
• Development of new machinery, particularly for deep compaction.
• Availability of new construction materials such as geofoams, geocomposits etc.
• Microbial methods - use microorganisms to produce bonding and cementation in
soil so as to increase the shear strength and reduce the permeability.
• Usage of Natural prefabricated vertical drains
 Materials used for ground improvement
1. CEMENT
• Cement stabilization is done by mixing pulverised soil and Portland cement with water and
compacting the mix to attain a strong material. The material obtained thus obtained is
called soil cement.
Types of soil cement:
1. Normal soil cement: It consists of 5 to 14% cement by volume. The quantity of cement
mixed with soil is sufficient to produce a hard and durable construction material. The amount
of water used should be just sufficient to satisfy hydration requirements of the cement to
make workable.
2. Plastic soil cement: This type of soil cement also contains cement 5 to 14% by volume, but
it has more quantity of water to have wet consistency similar to that of plastering mortar at
the time of placement. The plastic soil cement can be placed on steep or irregular slopes
where it is difficult to use normal road making equipment.
3. Cement Modified Soil: It is a type of soil cement that contains less than 5% of cement by
volume. As quantity of cement is small, it is not able to bind all the soil particles but it
reduces the swelling and shrinkage properties of the soil
• A well graded soil requires about 5% cement, whereas poorly graded;
uniform sand may require about 9% cement. Non plastic silts require about
10% cement, whereas plastic clays may need about 13% cement.
• Soil cement should be properly compacted. For good results, fine grained
soils compacted at wet of optimum and coarse grained soils compacted at
dry of optimum.
2. LIME
• It is used to modify the clayey soils or used as binder. Clayey soils of high plasticity are
treated with lime and the plasticity is decreased, the soil becomes friable and easy to
pulverize, have less affinity with water. Lime imparts binding action in granular soils. In fine
grained soils, due to puzzolonic action, with the addition of cement, the strength will be
increasing.
Uses of Soil Lime:
• Quite suitable as sub base courses for pavements
• Used as a base course for pavements with low traffic.
• Soil lime cannot be used as surface course even for light traffic in view of its very poor
resistance to abrasion and impact.
• Soil lime is quite suitable in warm regions but not suitable for freezing temperatures.
Engineering properties of Lime stabilization
• Plasticity: Upon addition of lime, the plasticity of clayey soils will be thoroughly
modified by the cation exchange. The soil becomes workable and friable thus making
compaction possible.
• 2. Dry density: The OMC of lime stabilized soil increases with the corresponding
reduction in the dry density. However, the compaction curve becomes flatter making
soil irresponsive to moisture changes.
• 3. Strength: The addition of lime to soil increases its UCC and CBR upto an optimum
lime content and thereafter decreases due to the presence of free lime.
• 4. Permeability: The permeability of lime stabilized soils increases due to the
flocculated structure with the larger size of pores. The increased value of k helps to
relieve the developed pore water pressures quickly.
• 5. Swelling and Shrinkage: Treatment of expansive clays by lime helps to reduce the
degree of volume change.
3. Bitumen
• It can be adopted for clay and sands provided they can be mixed with bitumen. In clays it helps to
repel water making it insensitive to moisture changes. In cohesionless soils, bitumen binds the
particles.
• The principle involved in soil bitumen is its water proofing and binding characteristics. By water
proofing, the inherent strength and other properties of the soil could be retained. For soils, both
binding and water proofing action are provided.
• In granular soils, the coarser grains may be individually coated and struck together by a thin film of
bituminous material.
• In fine grained soils, bituminous material plugs up the voids between the small soil clogs and thus
water proofing the compacted soil bitumen. Most commonly used materials are cut back or
emulsions.
Types of Soil-Bitumen:
1. Soil Bitumen: It is a water proofed cohesive soil system. It consists of 4-7% bitumen.
2. Sand Bitumen: Sand Particles are cemented together with bitumen. It consists of 4-10% bitumen.
3. Water Proofed Granular soils: Granular soils with low plastic fines can be stabilized using a small
percentage of bitumen (1-2%).
4. Oiled Earth: A Bituminous emulsion or cut back is sprayed on the soil surface to make it water
proof. It requires 4-5 litres of bitumen per m3. Normally bitumen is applied in the form of emulsion
Engineering Properties of Soil Bitumen
1. Optimum Moisture Content: Stabilisation of soil with bitumen results in the reduced
dry density and also reduced OMC. The reduction in OMC is attributed to the additional
lubrication effect of bitumen.
2. Strength: The UCC of soil bitumen increases upto an optimum content and thereafter
decreases.
3. The performance of the soil bitumen in practise depends on the % fines in the soil.
Higher % fines increases the dry density but softens the material under wet condition.
4. CALCIUM CHLORIDE
• Calcium Chloride has been used in highway construction & maintenance. It is generally a byproduct in making
sodium carbonate or from other chemical process.
• calcium chloride reduces evapourative water losses from soil that facilitates moisture content during
construction and controls of dust generation on unpaved roads.
• The most appreciated use of calcium chloride is as adust palliative on highly trafficked unpaved roads where
causes problems of poor visibility, increased vehicle wear and adversely effects the environment.
• Many uses of Calcium chloride can be found in electro-kinetic stabilization & grouting.
Properties of Calcium chloride
• Hygroscopicity: Calcium chloride is hygroscopic, which attracts and absorbs moisture ie., a function of relative
humidity and temperature.
• Deliquescence: A deliquescent substance is one that liquefies in moisture of its own absorption.
• Solubility: Calcium chloride is highly soluble solubility of substance in water is a major factor that determine
the extent of which vapour pressure, density, freezing point of water can be altered by addition.
• Vapour Pressure: Tendency of a substance to pass from liquid/solid to gaseous state. Vapour pressure of a
calcium chloride solution is always lower than that of water.
• Surface tension: Calcium chloride has higher surface tension than water.
• Freezing point: Calcium chloride has lower freezing point than water completing freezing of calcium chloride
occurs at -510C.
5. FLY ASH
• Fly ash is a solid waste product created by the combustion of coal.
• It is carried out of the boiler by the flue gasses and extracted by electrostatic
precipitators or cyclone separators and filter bags.
• Making more productive use of fly ash would have considerable environmental benefits
with reduced land, air and water pollution.
• Besides using fly ash alone as a structural fill material, scope exists for employing
techniques of ground modification to find more medium to high volume applications in
the following ways:
➢ Add cement or lime to stabilize the fly ash.
➢ Stabilize soils with cement lime fly ash mixes.
➢ Use fly ash in the containment of toxic wastes
Properties of fly ash:
• Chemical composition and reactivity: A microscopic view of fly ash reveals mainly glassy
spheres with some crystalline and carbonaceous matter.
• The principal chemical constituents are silica(SiO2), Alumina(Al2O3), ferric oxide
(Fe2O3) and calcium oxide (CaO). Other components are magnesium Oxide (MgO),
Titanium Oxide (TiO2), Alkalies (Na2O and K2O), Sulphur trioxide (SO3), Phosphorous
Oxide (P2O5).
• Water added to fly ash usually creates an alkaline solution, with a pH ranging from 6 to
11.
• Fly ash is a heterogeneous material.
 sustainable method of ground improvement
• mostly stabilization of soil can be carried with lime, cement, fibers, waste materials and
geosynthetic material.
• Few methods are not only eco-friendly but also toxic, costly and contaminate the ground
water.
• In order to have green approach for ground improvement, geotechnical engineers are
working with environment to find suitable and economical method for soil stabilization.
• Microbiological process is more environmental friendly than other conventional treatment
methods.
Microbial methods
• The bacterias or microbes found in around are used in the process. The process involved in
microbial effect results in the pores of the soil matrix.
• There are two methods of using microbes in soils:
(1) bio-stimulation
(2) bio augmentation.
• Bio-stimulation process involves the use of insitu microbes already present within the soil
along with the cementation solution provided externally. This process can be of significant
achievement for field applications provided the soil has enough microbes (urease enzyme
producing)
• The other method of bio-augmentation is similar in principle to the earlier one but the
only difference is that laboratory-cultured bacteria are supplied along with the
cementation solution. An advantage of the latter case can be knowledge of the colony
formation units of the bacteria, which can substantially affect the results.
• The whole process of microbial stabilization begins with microbe addition to the soil
followed by cementation solution treatment
MICROBIOLOGICAL MECHANISM
• The mechanisms for microbiological applications to geotechnical engineering can be
divided into two main categories: bio clogging and bio cementation.
• Bio clogging is a process where the soil void is filled by the product from microbial-
induced biochemical process. Bio cementation is to enhance the strength and stiffness
properties of soil and rocks by introducing bacteria and cementation reagents into the
soil.
• Facultative anaerobes could be useful for bio clogging and bio
cementation methods to improve the mechanical properties of soil
• The microbes which precipitates calcium carbonates very useful for
increasing bearing capacity, stiffness, susceptibility to liquefaction and
decreasing the permeability of soil.
• The use of microbials for improvement of soil characteristics is not only very
cost effective method but also eco-friendly method.
• The black cotton soil can also be well treated by microbes to reduce the
swelling effects and improve bearing capacity.
Factors affecting microbial soil stabilization
• Type/specie of microbe used- Microbes that are able to produce urease enzyme are best
suited for biological stabilization of soils. Most of the bacillus specie microbes produce
urease enzyme and as such can be implied for the purpose.
• Amount of microbe used (urease enzyme production) - Microbes act as nucleation sites
bridging two soil particles. if concentration of microbes is more, urease activity will be
more and vice versa.
• Cementation solution molarity (CSM) - lower concentration of CSM is more likely to
precipitate CaCO3 uniformly into the soil.
• PH of the system - a pH of 7–9 was the best suited condition. pH plays an important role in
the attachment of the bacteria and mobility, which is very necessary for a uniform CaCO3
distribution as the individual cells act as nucleation sites.
• Microbe and CS injection methods - Since the microbes act as nucleation sites and require
CS to proceed with the CaCO3 formation, it becomes necessary for the microbes to adhere
to the soil system. If the microbe is not retained properly, then problems like flushing out
of the microbe and non uniform CaCO3 deposition can be encountered and in turn the
strength values will be affected.
• Temperature of the surrounding and the system-Temperature affects the amount of
CaCO3 precipitation as it is directly responsible for the activity of the microbes and in turn
the urease enzyme production. Some researchers noted a rise in precipitation and size of
the crystal formation when a temperature of about 50°C was maintained.
• Type of soil, degree of compaction, nutrient availability, predatory organisms, curing, etc.
APPLICATIONS OF MICROBIAL INGEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING
• Reinforcing or stabilizing soil to facilitate the stability of tunnels or under ground
constructions;
• Increasing the bearing capacity of piled or non-piled foundations;
• Reducing the liquefaction potential of soil;
• Treating pavement surface;
• Strengthening tailings dams to prevent erosion and slope failure;
• Binding of the dust particles on exposed surfaces to reduce dust levels;
• Increasing the resistance of offshore structures to erosion of sediment within or beneath
gravity foundations and pipeline
• Stabilizing pollutants from soil by the binding;
• Controlling erosion in coastal area and rivers