7/31/2010

Two-day Short-Course on Recent Development in Ground

Improvement
p Techniques
q and Case Histories,, 10-11 August
g 2010

Methods for Soil Improvement

of Cohesionless Soils and
Recent Development
Jian Chu
School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
cjchu@ntu.edu.sg

A1. Dynamic compaction (DC)

A GI
A. A2 Vibrocompaction
A2.
without
admixtures
in non-
non- A3. Explosive compaction
cohesive
soils or fill
materials A4. Electric pulse compaction

A5. Surface compaction (including

rapid impact compaction)

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A1. Dynamic Compaction (DC)

• Carried out by dropping a heavy weight onto the ground.
• Drop height ranges from 15 to 40 m.
• Mainly
M i l used d for
f the
th densification
d ifi ti off sand.
d
• Effective depth is controlled by the compaction energy:
D=0.5√(HW)
where, H = height of drop (m) and W = mass of weight (ton).
Initial drops should be high to compact deep layers,
followed by smaller drop height to compact shallow layers.
• Advantages: quick and relatively inexpensive;
• Disadvantages: noisy, adjacent effect and depth of
improvement is limited (<8 m).

Varaksin’s general equation for

effective drops:
(D) = C δ sqrt (WH) Eq. (1)
where: C is the type of drop. Its value is given in Table, δ is
a correction factor. δ = 0.9 for metastable soils, young fills,
or very recent hydraulic fills and δ = 0.4 – 0.6 for sands.

Table 2 Values of coefficient C in Equation (1)

Double
Drop
D Free
F Rig
Ri Mechanical
M h i l Hydraulic
H d li
hydraulic
method drop drop winch winch
winch
C 1.0 0.89 0.75 0.64 0.5

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A1. DC (Cont’d)

Typical DC Program:
Weights of 10–30 tons,
Drop heights of 10–25 m,
15,000 m2 / mth per rig

(after Varaksin)

Saturation energy

Mechanisms
1. Applied energy in
tm/m²
2. Volume variation
as a function of
time
3. Ratio of pore
pressure to
liquefaction
pressure
4. Variation of bearing
capacity
5. Envelope of
improvement
(after Varaksin)

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A1. Typical
DC machines

Dynamic compaction with light hoisting

equipment and struts supported booms
A 900 t-m compaction frame used at
Palm Springs, USA

A1. Special DC equipment

DC is usually suitable to the compaction of granular soil 
of up to 8 m. It can go deeper using special equipment

Nice airport, France

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Recent technique: Progressive drop

‐ The weight is lowered slowly
to release some loads from the
boom before it is allowed to
fall freely.
‐ This reduces the backwards
reaction of the hoisting
equipment and improves the
efficiency
efficiency.
‐ With this improvement, a
more than 870 t‐m effective
drop can be achieved using an
ordinary crane.
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Underwater DC

DC has been used by Menard for a port project in Kuwait. A 32t 
tamper was used to compact a 2 m stone layer 10 m under water. 

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Examples: Changi East Singapore

Example – Changi East

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CASE HISTORY: KUALA TRENGGANU

AIRPORT EXTENSION (2007- 08)
(after Varaksin)

Reclamation for extended runway and turning pad

(after Varaksin)

Compaction at 36m2 grid with 10 – 15 blows of 15 tons over 20m drop

height followed by ironing phase of 2 blows of 300 ton.m energy. Total: 30
ton.m/m3 (150% of Proctor compaction energy)

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Self bearing
criteria
before
after

Bearing capacity (limit pressure): (after Varaksin)

Mean 6.7 bars (before) 13.6 bars (after) – 205% improvement
Settlement potential (pressuremeter modulus):
Harmonic mean 38 bars (before) 110 bars (after) – 292% improvement

Cone Resistance, qc (MPa) Friction Ratio, Rf (%)

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0
0 0

1 1
after (30 days)
RD= 70%
2 2

before
3 3
Depth (m)
Depth (m)

after
(2 days)
4 4

5 5

6 6

(after Varaksin)
7 7

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A2. Vibro-
Vibro-compaction (or
Vibroflotation)

www.ptc.fayat.com/1-2-11-78/Vibrolance.htm

Not to be confused with

Vibro-replacement!

www.ptc.fayat.com/1-2-11-78/Vibrolance.htm

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Vibro-compaction
• By inserting a cylindrical or torpedo-shaped probe into the ground followed
by compaction by vibration during withdrawal. Sinking of the probe to the
desired depth is usually accomplished using vibratory methods, often
supplemented byy water jjets at the tip of the probe. The vibrator is
incorporated in the lower end of a steel probe. The vibrator rotates around
the vertical axis to generate horizontal vibration amplitude.
• Vibrator diameters are in the range of 350 to 450 mm and the length is about
3-5 m, including a special flexible coupling, which connects the vibrator with
the extension tube.
• Unit developing centrifugal forces up to 160 kN and variable vibration
amplitudes up to 25 mm are available. Frequencies are normally between 30
to 50 Hz. Water jetting is ultilised with a water pressure of up to 0.8 MPa and
flow
o rate
ate oof up to 3000 l/min.
/ Thee water
ate jett
jetting
g ttransports
a spo ts tthe
e fine
e so
soil
particles to the ground and replacing it with coarse sand.
• Withdrawal is gradually in 0.5-1.0 m in stages.
• Granular backfill is then added so that a compacted sand or gravel column is
formed.

Vibro-compaction (cont’d)
• For clean granular soil
mainly;
• Treatment
T t t up to
t 20 m;
•Water is used to reduce
inter-granular forces.
• Spacing ~ 2 - 4m grid
• 5,000 m2 / mth per rig
•Advantages: Reaching
deeper depth,
depth less noisy
•Disadvantages:
Relative expensive, less
effective with silty sand.

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Vibro going deeper

The depth of vibrocompaction 
is often limited to 30 m. For a 
V48
dam project in Canada, a 52 m
penetration was achieved 
through dense sand layers and 
cobles using V‐48 with a 
higher vibrating  amplitude of 
48 mm at the tip Cone
48 mm at the tip. Cone 
resistance achieved >13 MPa 
(Lauzon et al. 06). 

Vibro-compaction (Cont’d)

Main elements of vibratory compaction equipment

(resonance compaction system).

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Vibro-compaction (Cont’d)

Vibro probe
Vibro wing

Muller resonance
compaction (MRC)

Vibro-compaction (cont’d)

Offshore / under water

On land

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Vibro-compaction (Cont’d)

Grading range of soil suitable for vibro-compaction

(after Brown, 1997)

Vibro-compaction (Cont’d)
The method
becomes less
effective when
the fines
contents
(<0.075 mm)
increases

Effect of fines
content on
effectiveness of
vibro-compaction
(after Saito, 1977)

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Vibro-compaction (Cont’d)

Soil classification for deep compaction based on CPT,

from Massarsch (1991)

Example
Table 1. Specification of vibroflotation equipment

Type Vibroflotation Keller Pennine

Model V23 V28 V32 S300 BD 400

Power rating (kW) 130 130 130 150 215
Speed of rotation (rpm) 1800 1800 1800 1775 1800
Rated current (Amp) 300 300 300 300 350 bar
Centrifugal force (kN) 280 330 450 290 345
Amplitude (mm) 23 28 32 25 30
Vibrator diameter (mm) 350 360 350 400 406
Vibrator length (m) 3.25 3.3 3.25 2.9 4.0
Vibrator weight (kN) 22 25 25 24.5 19.5

Note: Pennine is driven by hydraulic motor.

(after Bo, Chu and Choa, 2005)

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Example
Dual S700 vibrator with water jetting and compressed 
air alongside the vibro tools was used for the Palm Deria 
project in Dubai (Wehr 07).

A4. Electric pulse compaction

A probe that generates electric sparks is lowered in a 
b h l i k i l di
hole filled with grout and a series of electric discharges   
(~ 20 kilo Joule) are applied at a frequency of 10 
discharges per min at every 0.5 to 1 m interval  to create 
compaction of the borehole sides (Lomize et al. 73)

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A5. Surface Compaction

Surface or Rapid Impact

Compaction

Surface compaction Rapid impact compaction

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