Ground improvement

techniques
Why do we need ground improvement

• Shear strength parameters are not adequate

• Collapsible nature of soil
• Swelling and shrinkage of soil
• Soft soils
• Organic and peaty soils
• Karstic rocks layers with sinkhole formation
• Development foundation on dumps and landfill areas
• Use of old mine pits
Strategies to build Foundation on difficult
soils
• Avoid particular site
• Design structure ( rigid or flexible)
• Remove and replace unsuitable soil
• Modification of the existing ground
• Ensure sustainability in construction
Ground improvement techniques provide;

• Soil shear strength improvements

• Reduced total and differential settlements
• Shorter construction time
• Reduced construction costs.
Definition & Purpose of compaction
• Compaction means to press the soil particles tightly
together by expelling air from the void space
• Compaction usually increases the soil’s density &
produce 3 important effects:
– Increase in shear strength
– Decrease in future settlement of soil
– Decrease in permeability
• Compaction is a cheap & effective way to improve the
properties of soil

Before compaction After compaction

Factors affecting compaction of soil

• Compaction of soil can be affected by:

– Moisture content (covered in section 4.2)
– Compaction effort
– Type of soil
• Compaction effort
– can be quantified in terms of the
compaction energy per unit volume
Factors affecting compaction of soil

• Compaction effort (cont’d)

– It is a function of
• the number of blows per layer
• Number of layers
• Weight & height of hammer
• Volume of mold
– The greater the compaction energy per
unit volume, the greater the compaction
 Factors affecting compaction of soil

• The figure illustrates

the influence of
compaction energy on
the compaction of
sandy clay
• As the no. of blows
, the max d  &
optimum moisture
content 
 Factors affecting compaction of soil

• Type of soils
– Max dry unit weight & optimum moisture
content can be affected by:
• Grain-size distribution of soil
• Shape & specific gravity of solids
• Type & amount of clay minerals present
– Max dry unit weight can range from
9.42 kN/m3 for organic soils to about
22.78 kN/m3 for well-graded granular material
 Factors affecting compaction of soil

• Type of soils (cont’d)

– Optimum moisture content can range from 5%
to 35%
– Higher optimum moisture contents are
associated with lower dry unit weights
– Higher dry unit weights are associated with well-
graded granular materials
– Uniformly graded sand, clays of high plasticity and
organic silts & clays respond poorly to compaction
 Factors affecting compaction of soil

• Type of soils (cont’d)

– The figure gives the
moisture vs density
curves for the various
types of soils
– Both the shapes &
positions of the
curves change as
the texture of soil
varies
After Johnson and Sallberg, 1960
Illustration of compaction specification of
soils in the field.
Diffuse double layer
Attraction of dipolar molecules in diffuse
double layer

Sediment structures: (a) dispersion;

(b) flocculation (Adapted from Lambe,
1958)
 Effect of compaction on structure of clay soils

more random
particle orientation

lower dry unit

weight

higher hydraulic
conductivity
Effect of compaction on hydraulic
conductivity of clayey soil
Effect of compaction on one-dimensional
compressibility of clayey soil

• At lower stress, soil that is compacted on wet side of the optimum is

more compressible
• At higher stress, soil that is compacted on dry side of the optimum is
more compressible
Effect of compaction on strength
Dry side of optimum moisture content
• For good and sound foundation conditions
• Less construction of pore water pressure
• Higher strength and more rigid
• Results in brittle compacted mass
• Does not tolerate large differential settlements
Wet side of optimum moisture content
• For weaker and compressible foundation conditions
• Larger construction of pore water pressure
• Lower strength
• Can tolerate large differential settlements
• For water retaining structures, wet side of compaction is favoured to
minimise soil permeability
 Field compaction
• Compaction is normally done in layers
• Moisture content can be
– Increased by sprinkling water
– Decreased by aeration
• The surface of each compacted layer should be
scarified by disk plowing to provide for
bonding between layers
 Field compaction
• Various kind of field compaction equipment:
– Tampers
– Rollers
• Tampers
– Compact soil by delivering light weight
blows
– Limited in scope and compacting ability
– Useful in areas not readily accessible to
rollers
 Field compaction
• Rollers
– Can cover large areas relatively quickly & with
great compacting pressures
– Smooth wheel roller
• 2 or 3 smooth wheel metal rollers
• Useful in compacting base courses & paving mixtures
• Also used to provide a smooth finished grade
• They are generally self-propelled
Field compaction
– Smooth wheel roller (cont’d)
• Compacted primarily through static weight
Field compaction
– Sheepsfoot roller
• Consists of a drum with metal projecting “feet”
attached
• Only projecting feet come into contact with soil, area
of contact is small, → greater compacting pressure
 Field compaction
– Sheepsfoot roller (cont’d)
• Effective for compacting fine-grained soils
 Field compaction
– Pneumatic roller
• Consists of of rubber tires, highly inflated
• Vary from small to very large & heavy ones
• clayey & silty soils may be compacted effectively
 Field compaction
• This type of rollers are also effective for
granular material containing small amount of
fines
 Field compaction
– Vibratory roller
• Contains a vibrating unit that imparts an up-
and-down vibration to the roller as it pulled
over the soil
• Effective in
compacting
granular materials
 Field compaction
• Two means may be used to specify a particular
compaction requirement
– Specify the procedure to be adopted by contractor
& the no. of passes to be made
– Specify the compacted soil’s required final dry
unit weight and moisture range (more commonly
used)
Dynamic compaction
 Dynamic Compaction

• In cohesive soils, the reduction of settlements

due to dynamic compaction is more distinct
than the increase in bearing capacity
• The tamping produce a pre-settlement of the
soil, well beyond the settlement that would
have occurred as a result of construction
weight only, without any preliminary
consolidation
 Dynamic Compaction
• For cohesionless soils, dynamic
compaction densifies loose soil
• A closely spaced grid pattern is
selected for a given compaction
site
• Preliminary work is done to
determine grid spacing &
weight, height & no. of drops
• Can be used to treat the
subsurface which have the
karstic features.
 Dynamic Compaction

• Approximate depth of influence, DI

– For cohesionless soils
DI = 0.5 Wh (m)

– For cohesive soils

DI = Wh (m)
(tonnes,1000 kg)
W = weight

h = distance dropped (m)

• The extent of improvement is greatest near the

surface & diminishes with depth
Poran and Rodriguez (1992)

• Determination of the
Number of Drops
 Poran and Rodriguez (1992)
• Determination of spacing
 Dynamic Compaction

• Improvement increases with drops made up to

some limit, beyond which additional drops
afford little or no additional improvement
• With saturated, fine-grained soils, satisfactory
results may be obtained by performing a series
of drops at intervals of several days to allow
for dissipation of pore pressures due to
previous compaction
 Dynamic Compaction
• It should be noted that soil surface may
become crated as a result of dynamic
compaction
• When this happens, the craters must be
backfilled & compacted by other means
 Vibro techniques

•The eccentric weight in the vibrating unit

enables the unit to vibrate horizontally.
•Vibrating unit has water jets at the bottom
and at the top of the unit.

(1) Vibro compaction/vibro flotation

(2) Vibro replacement/ vibro stone column

Vibro compaction/vibro flotation

• The cylindrical zone of

compaction will have a radius
of about 2 - 3 m
• Can be compacted up to 120 ft
• probe spacings depend on the
zone of compaction.
• arranged on a triangular or
square pattern
• The success of densification
of insitu soil depends on the
grainsize distribution of the
soil and nature of the back fill
Compaction by the vibroflotation process (Based
on Brown, 1977.)
Effective range of grain-size distribution of
soil for vibroflotation

excessive amounts of fine

sand and silt-size particles
are
difficult to compact

soil particles dampens the

vibrations and prevents
Slow rate of rearrangement and
probe compaction occurring
penetration

Zone 1 - most suitable for

compaction by vibroflotation
Selection of material based on Brown (1977)

D50 , D20 , and D10 are the diameters (in mm)

through which 50%, 20%, and 10%,
respectively, of the material is passing
Case history results (Basore and Boitano ,1969)
Vibro replacement/ vibro stone column
• cohesion between the soil particles dampens the vibrations
and prevents rearrangement and compaction occurring.
• Improvement is achieved by ‘reinforcing’ the soil with
relatively rigid stone columns.
• .The column of compacted dense granular material forms,
together with the surrounding soil, a composite stone
column.
• enhanced shear strength and bearing capacity, together
with a corresponding reduction in settlements (attributed to
the ‘stiffening’ effect of the stone columns).
• Stone columns in fine-grained soils also assist in the
dissipation of excess pore water pressure under applied load
or surcharge, which accelerates the consolidation process.
• Dry bottom-feed method
• Wet top-feed method
• Normally filled with imported gravel size range of 6 to 40 mm.
• 0.5 to 0.75 m diameter
• Centre to centre Spacing 1.5 to 3 m.
• a fill material should always be placed over the ground surface and
compacted before the foundation is constructed
• stone columns are most effective to a depth of 6 to 10 m
 • The area replacement ratio

stress concentration
due to change in
stiffness

Stone
columns in a
triangular
pattern;
• For an equilateral triangular pattern of stone columns
• stress concentration factor

• The improvement in the soil owing to the stone columns

Load-Bearing Capacity of Stone Columns

• When Length of the stone column< 3D, failure occurs by plunging

similar to short piles in soft to medium-stiff clays
• For longer columns sufficient to prevent plunging, the load
carrying capacity is governed by the ultimate radial confining
pressure and the shear strength of the surrounding matrix soil

• Mitchell (1981)

• Stuedlein and Holtz (2013)

• Stuedlein and Holtz, 2013
Pre-loading

• Suitable for highly compressible, normally consolidated clayey soil

layers
• pre-load may have to be applied in increments
• rate of loading can be controlled by monitoring the rate of dissipation
of excess pore water pressure.
• wait for consolidation to be complete under the pre-load before
construction.
For proposed structural load

If a surcharge , is applied
midplane
degree of consolidation
• If , increment in the fill pressure is known,
• Time taken to achieve the settlement

•
• For a specified value of t2 , required load increment can be
calculated.
Vertical drains
Sand drains
• Sand drains are constructed by drilling holes through the clay layer(s)
in the field at regular intervals and the holes are then back filled with
sand.
• a surcharge is applied at the ground surface.
• The excess pore water pressure created by loading will be dissipated
by the drainage ( vertically and radially)
Other vertical drains

• Sandwick - consists of a filter stocking, usually of woven

polypropylene, filled with sand. Typical diameter – 65 mm
• band drain - consisting of a flat plastic core indented with drainage
channels, surrounded by a layer of filter fabric.
• Drains are normally installed in either a square or a triangular pattern
• spacing of the drains < thickness of the clay layer
• Accurate determination of coefficients of consolidation in both the
horizontal and the vertical directions is essential for the design
• The ratio ch/cv is normally between 1 and 2.
• Design of large-diameter sand drains is complicated.
• Vertical drains may not be effective in overconsolidated clays.
• Vertical drainage only,

• Solution,
Relationships between average degree of
consolidation and time factor
• Vertical and horizontal drainage,

• Solution,
Relationships between average degree of
consolidation and time factor for radial drainage.
Degree of consolidation under combined
vertical and radial drainage

• Installation effects - The values of the soil properties for the soil
immediately surrounding the drains may be significantly reduced due
to remoulding during installation. This is called smear effect
• This can be taken into account by reducing the horizontal coefficient
of consolidation or by reducing values of drain diameter
Example