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Experimental Evidence on the Strength of Soil Treated with Single and

Double Fluid Jet Grouting

Conference Paper · July 2017

DOI: 10.1061/9780784480809.006

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 Experimental Evidence on the Strength of Soil Treated with Single and
Double Fluid Jet Grouting

L. Wanik1; M. C. Masc o, Ph.D.2; J. Bz wka, Ph.D.3; G. Modoni, Ph.D.4;

J. S. L. Shen, Ph.D.5

1
Faculty of Civil Engineering, Silesian Univ. of Technology, Akademicka 5, 44-100 Gliwice,
Poland. E-mail lidia.wanik@polsl.pl
2
Dept. of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, Univ. of Cassino and Southern Lazio, via di Biasio
43, 03043 Cassino (FR), Italy. E-mail mc.mascolo@unicas.it
3
Faculty of Civil Engineering, Silesian Univ. of Technology, Akademicka 5, 44-100 Gliwice,
Poland. E-mail: joanna.bzowka@polsl.pl
4
Dept. of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, Univ. of Cassino and Southern Lazio, via di Biasio
43, 03043 Cassino (FR), Italy. E-mail: modoni@unicas.it
5
Dept. of Civil Engineering, School of Naval Architecture, Ocean, and Civil Engineering,
Shanghai Jiao Tong Univ., 800 Dong Chuan Rd., Shanghai 200240, China. E-mail:
slshen@sjtu.edu.cn

Abstract
The various technological solutions of jet grouting, normally grouped into single, double and
triple fluid, aim principally at increasing the efficiency of treatments obtaining larger diameter of
columns and reduce construction time and cost. Rarely attention is put on the influences of the
technology on the mechanical properties of the material, considering this as a secondary issue.
The present paper focuses on this aspect summarizing the observation of a comprehensive field
trial where sixteen columns have been created with single and double fluid jet grouting varying
the injection parameters. The large number of laboratory tests performed on samples cored from
the columns show a predominant role of the technology, being the material created with single
fluid systematically stronger than the one formed with double fluid. This aspect has been herein
explored on samples of original soil compared with materials cored from single and double fluid
jet columns: the morphology of the samples has been investigated by scanning electron
microscopy (SEM), while the mineralogical composition has been inferred with X-ray diffraction
(XRD), differential thermal (DTA), and thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA). The analysis shows
that, if on one side the wrapping of the jet with an annulus of compressed air enhances the
cutting capacity of the double fluid jet and is this able to create larger diameters, on the other
side it leads to a lower proportion of cement in the columns, that is responsible for worse
mechanical properties of the material.

INTRODUCTION

The jet grouting technology can be nowadays found in a variety of technological solutions,
grouped for the sake of simplicity as single, double and triple fluid depending on the number of
injected fluids (Croce et al., 2014). It is recalled that much of the effort of producers of
equipment is addressed to obtain larger columns, in order to reduce the number of boreholes and
gain efficiency in terms of time and costs. In particular, the coating of the cutting jet with air
typical of double and triple fluid systems (Modoni et al., 2006; Flora et al, 2013, Ochmanski et
al., 2015, Shen et al., 2013, Modoni et al., 2016) allows to reach diameters as large as two and
half meters that are very convenient to speed up the creation of structures like from foundation
reinforcement (Modoni & Bzowka, 2013), impervious cut offs (Croce &Modoni, 2006), bottom
plugs (Modoni et al., 2016; Eramo et al., 2012), tunnels (Ochamanski et al., 2015). However, in
most cases limited attention is paid to the mechanical properties of the jet grouted material. In
particular, jet grouting is often considered as a provisional solution not necessitating of
particularly high properties, and thus the effects of the injection technology are neglected. As a
result, apart from few examples (e.g. Tinoco et al., 2014) strength has been rarely considered as a
topic of interest from the scientific literature. On the contrary, an accurate knowledge of the
mechanical properties of the jet grouted material and of their relation with technological issues
would lead to optimize the use of jet grouting and possibly indicate that it can be used with
permanent function. One of the few examples reported in the literature (Croce et al., 2015) shows
that columns created with double fluid system possess a lower strength of the in comparison with
the single fluid system. Willing to explore this effect, the present paper summarizes the
observation of a comprehensive field trial where sixteen columns have been created with single
and double fluid jet grouting, varying the set of injection parameters and the properties of the
material investigated with laboratory tests.

THE CASE STUDY

The trial field is situated in the municipality of Bojszowy Nowy, in the Upper Silesia (Poland).
The subsoil was investigated by performing two exploratory boreholes and four Piezocone Tests
(CPTU) reaching in all cases the depth of 10 m. From top to bottom (Figure 1.a), the subsoil
presents a typical alluvial sequence with an upper 2.3 m thick layer of medium sand overlapped
to a 2 m thick layer of organic clay and to a subbase layer of coarse sand.
The field trial consists of a total number of 16 jet grouting columns, 8 created with single-fluid
and 8 with double-fluid jet grouting system (indicated as respectively 1S÷8S and 1D÷8D in
Figure 1.b). Each column is about 4 m long, ranging from 0.5 m to 4.5 m below the ground level.
After treatment the columns were discovered up to the depth of 1.5 below the ground level and
the diameter was directly measured (see Figure 2.a and Table 1).
The columns were formed varying the set of parameters from one to another in order to see the
different effects of injection. Apart from the differences among the different columns, it is soon
evident that for similar values of the parameters (namely diameter of the nozzle, grout pressure
and flow and monitor lifting speed) the use of double fluid jet grouting leads to larger diameters.
After excavation, samples of material were cored from the top part of columns falling in the
upper medium sand layer (see Figure 1.a) and subjected to uniaxial compression tests in the
laboratory.
 (b)

(a)

Figure 1. Layo
out of the fieeld trial at BojszowyNo
B owy: subsoill layering (aa); columns
arranngement (b)).

Column Nr and Grout Grout Lifting Average Cement Uniaxxial

# diameter pressure flow ratee speed diameter per unitt compreessive
[mm] of [bar] [l/min] [m/s] [m] volume strength
nozzles [kg/m3] [MPa]
1S 2x4.0 360 316 0.0083 1.13 474 7,88
2S 2x2.8 360 155 0.0083 0.94 337 4,555
3S 2x4.0 180 223 0.0083 0.90 528 20,88
4S 2x2.8 250 129 0.0083 0.78 407 -
5S 2x4.0 360 316 0.0083 1.13 475 11,66
6S 2x2.8 360 155 0.0083 0.98 310 11,008
7S 2x4.0 180 223 0.0083 0.90 528 11,31
8S 2x2.8 250 129 0.0083 0.86 335 11,007
1D 2x4.0 360 316 0.0083 1.75 198 -
2D 2x4.0 180 223 0.0083 1.61 165 1,66
3D 2x4.0 360 316 0.0083 1.73 203 3,44
4D 2x4.0 180 223 0.0083 1.58 171 3,1
5D 2x2.8 360 155 0.0083 1.54 125 3,3
6D 2x2.8 260 131 0.0083 - - 1,66
7D 2x2.8 360 155 0.0083 1.88 84 5,3
8D 2x2.8 250 129 0.0083 1.63 93 1,3
Table 1.
1 Technolog gical param
meters of jet grouting coolumns perfformed in B
BojszowyNoowy.

The labo
oratory tests, performed d on samples of single a double flluid jet grouuting of diffferent
shape (h//d ratio of 1 and 2) are summarizedd reporting tthe statisticss of the uniaaxial compreessive
strength in Table 2. To perform m a more deetailed analyysis, the meean values obtained
o on each
column area reported d in Table 1. 1 It is immmediate to seee that the samples off double fluiid jet
grouting possess a systematicallly much loower compreessive strenngth in compparison withh the
sample of
o columns injected with h single fluidd jet groutinng system, aand this effect is indepenndent
on the sleenderness raatio (h/d) of the
t sample.

(a) (b)

Figure 2. Picture of excavated

e coolumns (a) aand of the ccored samplles (b).

Sample
S shappe h/d h/d=1.0
h h/d= 2.0
Jeet grouting system
s SF D
DF SF DF
Number of data 22 115 19 8
Mean strength h [Mpa] 11.7 33.2 11.8 1.1

Standard deviation [Mpa] 1.6 00.5 1.1 0.1

Table 2.
2 Statistics of the unia
axial compreessive strenggth obtaineed from the different tests.

Considerring that in most

m cases, jet j grouting columns coontribute to tthe stability of the reinfo forced
structures with theirr strength, thhis aspect deserves
d a ddeeper invesstigation. With
W this aim m, the
uniaxial compressive
c e strength ob
btained on eaach column hhas been rel ated to the aamount of ceement
injected per
p unit voluume of cemented materiial, this latteer proportionnal to the mmeasured diam meter
of the coolumn. Altho ough scattereed, the data in Figure 3 clearly expllain the loweer strength oof the
material formed with h double fluiid as an effect of the lowwer proportioon of cemennt in the coluumns.
In fact, itt must be co
onsidered thaat, despite siimilar valuees of the flow
w rates and llifting speedds are
adopted for the singlle and doublle fluid colu umns (see Taable 1), the double fluidd system tennds to
spread thhe injected ceement over larger
l colummns, with thee results of pproducing a w
weaker cemented
material.
 Figurre 3. Uniaxiial compresssive strength as functioon of the cem
ment injecteed in the un
nit
volum
me of column.

MINERA
ALOGICAL
L COMPOS
SITION

The mineeralogical ch haracterizatiion of the orriginal soil aand of the m

material obtaained with single
s
and doub ble jet grouting was perfoormed by meeans of X-raay diffractionn (XRD), diffferential theermal
analysis (DTA)
( and thermogravim
t metric analyysis (TGA).
The XRD D performed d on the naatural sand (Figure 4.a)) reveals thhe presence of quartz (SiO2,
JPCDS card
c no. 46--1045) as a prevalent crrystalline phhase togetheer with a seccondary phaase of
dolomite ferroan, Ca(Mg,
C Fe)((CO3)2, (JPC CDS card no. 34-517)) and tracees of muscoovite,
KAl3Si3O10(OH)2, (JJPCDS card d no. 75-948 8) and microocline, KAl Si3O8, (JPC CDS card noo. 19-
932).
The same analysis performed
p onn soil treated with singlle fluid jet ggrouting (Figure 4.b) reeveals
again the presence of quartz, SiO2, (JPC CDS card nno. 46-1045)) with traces of musccovite
KAl3Si3O10(OH)2, (JP PCDS card no. 75-948), dolomite fferroan, Ca(M Mg, Fe)(CO O3)2, (JPCDS S card
no. 34-5117) and micrrocline, KAllSi3O8, (JPC CDS card noo. 19-932), bbut also portllandite, Ca(OOH)2,
(JPCDS card no. 44-1481), vaterite, CaCO C 3, (JPC CDS card no. 13-1992), tetracallcium
monosulffoaluminate hydrate, 3CaO.Al3 2O3. CaSO4 x xH2O, (JPC CDS card no. n 18-275) and
tetracalciium monocaarboaluminatte hydrate, 3CaO.Al2O3. CaCO3 xH2O. It is worrth noting thaat the
last two phases belo ong to AFm phases which are norm mally generaated as hydraation produccts of
Portland cement.
These ph hases are neegligible or totally
t missing in the X
XRD patternn of soil treated with doouble
fluid jet grouting (FFigure 4.c), that showss the presennce of crysttalline quarttz with traces of
muscovitte, microclinn and calcite,, CaCO3 (JPCDS card noo. 5-586).

(a) (b))

(c)

Figure 4.
4 XRD powder pattern n of the natu
ural soil (a), of the mateeriel cored ffrom single fluid
(b) an
nd from douuble fluid (c)) columns (q
q=quartz; D D=dolomite ferroan; M M=Microclin ne;
Mu=mu uscovite; C=
=vaterite; Mo=tetracalc
M ciummonosu ulfoaluminaate hydrate;; P=portlan ndite;
* = tetraccalciummon nocarboalum minate hydrate).

The DTA A performed d on the origginal soil (Figure 5.a) shhows three enndothermic peaks at 571.5 °,
760.5 ° and
a 867.4 °C C, the first indicative of
o the displaacive and poolymorphic ttransformatioon of
quartz, th
he other two o peaks due tot the decom mposition off dolomite (C CaCO3·MgC CO3) (Mackeenzie,
I970). Thhe TGA curv ve reported in
i the same plot, shows a small (2 w wt %) and coontinuous wweight
loss from
m room temp perature up tot 700 °C, while
w the twoo weight lossses in correespondence of
o the
two endo othermic effeects are relaated to the deecompositionn of MgCO3 and CaCO3 of dolomitte. As
expectedd, no change in the weigh ht loss resultts for the pollymorphic trransformatioon of quartz..
The matterial treated d with sing gle fluid jet grouting sshows a larrger numberr of less inntense
endotherm mic peaks at 235 °, 501 °, 574 °, 7000 ° and 8111 °C (Fig. 5.bb). In particular, the efffect at
501°C, characterized by a m meaningful weight
w loss,, has beenn attributed to the theermal
decompo osition of porrtlandite, Caa(OH)2, whille that at 5744 °C is due tto the presennce of quartz and
the two peaks at 700 7 ° and 811 °C outtcomes from m thermal decompositiion of doloomite.
Significaant shifts towward lower temperaturees are seen ffor these peeaks comparred with thoose of
untreatedd soil (Figuree 5.a). Addittionally, the dolomite coontent is low
wer comparedd to that founnd on
the naturral soil, being the weightt loss connected to the ddolomite deccompositionn smaller. Finnally,
the soil treated
t with
h single fluidd jet groutinng reveals a relatively higher weigght loss (4 % %) at
temperatu ures lower th
han 400 °C compared
c to
o 1 % seen onn the untreatted soil.
The mateerial coming g from doub ble fluid jet grouting shhows in DTA A two endoothermic peaaks at
572,5 ° and
a 787,1 °C C (Figure 5.cc), the formeer related to tthe presencee of quartz, whereas
w the latter
due to th
he decomposition of dolo omite (CaCO O3·MgCO3). The continuuous weight loss observeed up
to 400 °CC is more sim
milar to the natural
n soil than to the m
material treatted with singgle fluid.
Comparin ng the main diffraction peak of quaartz for the jeet grouted m materials (Figgure 6), it iss seen
that the soil treated with doublee fluid has a higher conntent of quaartz comparred to that oof the
single flu
uid.

(a) (b)

(c)

Figure 5. Differenttial thermall analysis (D DTA) and th hermograviimetric anallysis (TGA) for
nattural soil (a)) and for the soil treateed with singgle (b) and d
double (c) jeet grouting.

On the other
o hand, the
t typical crystalline
c p
phases of thee hydration of cement are absent in i the
double flluid case, wh hile the pressence of AFM M phases, pportlandite annd vaterite in the single fluid
justifies the positivee effect of cement.
c It iss well knowwn that the binding effeectiveness of o the
cement isi mainly reelated to thee formation n of a calciuum silicate hydrate, CS SH the prinncipal
binding agent
a in cem
ment chemistrry (Taylor, 1997).
1 The ppresence of th
this phase, noot easy to bee
 b)

a)

Figure 6.
6 Main difffraction pea
ak of quartzz for the soill treated witth single (a)) and double (b)
jett grouting

distinguished by XR RD because of
o its very loow crystallinnity (Hewlettt, 2003), is confirmed iin the
single flu
uid jet grouuted soils by
y the typicall weight los s connectedd to the dehydration of CSH
phase in the typical temperaturee range (150 0-450 °C) duuring the theermal decom mposition (F Figure
5.b); on the other siide this weigght loss in much
m smalleer for the sooil treated wwith double fluid
system (Figure 5.b).. The tetracaalciummonoocarboaluminnate hydratee in the sam mple treated with
single flu
uid is formeed at early age
a of cemeent hydrationn in presencce of limesttone or doloomite,
while thee tetracalcium
mmonosulfo oaluminate hydrate
h is a rresult of thee transformaation of ettrinngite.
The consspicuous red duction of th
he amounts of o both quarrtz and doloomite in the single fluidd case
compared d with untreated soil con
nfirms the effficacy of jett grouting.

a) b)

Figure 7 SEM microg

graphs of th
he samples trreated with ssingle (a) or double (b) ffluid

A furtherr confirmation of the efffectiveness of jet groutiing with sinngle fluid com mpared withh that
with dou uble fluid haas been also o obtained by
b SEM anaalysis (Fig. 7). The sam mple treated with
single flu
uid (a) presen
nts platelikee aggregates of portlandiite crystals (M
Mascolo et al,
a 2010) toggether
with pressence, on the quartz graains micromeetric in size,, of very sm mall particless probably ddue to
CSH phaase. Portland dite and CSH H phases reppresent the tyypical hydraation phases of cement w which
are absent in the micrograph of the sample treated with double fluid (b) prevalently characterized
by micrometric quartz particles.

CONCLUSIVE REMARKS

The results of a field trial have been herein summarily presented to show the effects of jet
grouting carried out with different technologies, alternating single and double fluid with variable
set of injection parameters. As expected, the direct measurement of diameter on the excavated
columns shows that the air used in double fluid jet grouting to shroud the inner jet of grout and
protect it from the energy exchange with the surrounding fluid, has the positive role of increasing
the cutting length of the jet and produce larger columns. This effect has obvious positive
consequences on the productivity of the jet grouting system allowing to cover larger areas or,
conversely to need less columns. On the other hand, the uniaxial compressive strength of the
material shows a meaningful role of the technology, being the resistance of the material formed
with single fluid much higher than that seen on the material formed with double fluid system. A
careful investigation leads to ascribe the reasons of such difference on the different amount of
cement present in the columns. In fact, considering that similar amount of cement are normally
injected per unit length of columns, the larger extension of the double fluid columns tends to
diffuse this binder over larger volumes, with the results that the obtained material is weaker.
The same conclusion comes out also from the chemical analysis of the materials, that shows a
limited presence of the typical crystalline phases of the hydration of cement in the double fluid
columns.

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