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TR 335: FOUNDATION ENGINEERING II

(2.0E CORE)
University of Dar es Salaam

College of Engineering and Technology

Department of Transportation & Geotechnical Engineering

2014/ 15
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Course contents
1) Foundations: Design and construction considerations.

2) Deep foundations: Types, analysis, design and construction

considerations.

3) Retaining walls: Types, design and construction aspects.

4) Excavations: Design and methods of excavation.

5) Dewatering of soils: Methods of dewatering and pressure relief,

design of dewatering systems, filter requirements.

6) Embankment dams: Types of earth dams, design principles,

construction of earth dams.
7) Ground improvement techniques: Soil replacement, preloading, deep
compaction, stabilisation, geosynthetics, compaction, de-watering,
grouting & soil freezing
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Chapter 7: Ground Improvement Techniques

The ground improvement techniques contents
1. Introduction

2. Soil Replacement

3. Preloading

4. Deep Compaction

5. Stabilisation (mechanical, chemical)

6. Geosynthetics

7. Compaction, De-watering
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Chapter 7: Ground Improvement Techniques

Introduction
 Ground improvement techniques involve changing soil
characteristics by a physical action, such as vibration, or by the
inclusion or mixing of a stronger material in the soil.

 The aim of this process is to;

1. Increase the load-bearing capacity and/or the shear strength of the
ground – Compaction, Preloading, Stabilisation, Dewatering,
Grouting, Freezing.
2. Reduce both absolute and differential settlements or in certain
cases, accelerate them – Compaction, Preloading (consolidation),
Stabilisation, Grouting.
3. Decrease in permeability – Compaction, Stabilisation
4. Increase in permeability – Vertical soil drains, Stabilisation
5. Decrease of plasticity - Stabilisation
6. To mitigate or remove the risk of liquefaction in the event of an
earthquake or major vibrations – Compaction, Stabilisation
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Chapter 7: Ground Improvement Techniques

Introduction cont…
 The scope of application of the various techniques depends mainly
on the type and grading of the soils that require improving.
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Chapter 7: Ground Improvement Techniques

Soil Replacement

 One of oldest and simplest methods is simply to remove and

replace the soil.

 Soils that will have to be replaced include contaminated soils or

organic soils.

 Method is usually practical only above the groundwater table.

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Chapter 7: Ground Improvement Techniques

Preloading
 Adding an artificial load to a potential construction site prior to the
time the proposed construction is undertaken.
 The soil is improved by causing soil consolidation to occur prior to
construction and loading thereby decreasing subsequent
settlements of the structure.
 Preloading is carried out by simply adding fill or other surcharge to
the natural soil in-situ and allowing the added weight to consolidate
the soil naturally over a period of time.
 The greater the added surcharge and the longer the time it is in
place prior construction the better the consolidation will be and the
better the bearing capacity of the soil will be.
 The amount of materials to be used as surcharge, the time
available and practical/ economic considerations may limit the
process.
 The time needed may be reduced by including vertical sand and/ or
gravel drains during the surcharge period.
 Preloading works best in soft silty and clayey soils.
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Chapter 7: Ground Improvement Techniques

Preloading cont…
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Chapter 7: Ground Improvement Techniques

Preloading cont…
Advantages of preloading
1. Requires only conventional earthmoving equipment which is readily
available.
2. Any grading contractor can perform the work.
3. The results can be effectively monitored by using appropriate
instrumentation and ground level surveys.
4. The method has a long track record of success.
5. The cost is comparatively low so long as soil for preloading is
readily available and can readily be discarded at the end of the
process.
Disadvantages of preloading
1. The surcharge generally must extend horizontally at least 10m
beyond the perimeter of the planned construction
2. The transport of large quantities of soil onto the site may not be
practical or may have unacceptable environment impacts (dust,
noise, traffic)
3. The surcharge must remain in place for months or years thus
delaying construction. This can be accelerated by installation of
vertical drains.
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Chapter 7: Ground Improvement Techniques

Preloading with vertical drains
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Chapter 7: Ground Improvement Techniques

Preloading with vertical drains cont…
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Preloading with vertical drains cont…
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Chapter 7: Ground Improvement Techniques

Vibroflotation
 A vibro-compaction method useful for compacting thick (up to 25m)
in-situ layers of loose cohesionless soils.
 It utilizes simultaneous vibration and saturation.
 Uses a Vibroflot Prode, a cylindrical vibrator 1.8 – 2.1m long and
400mm diameter weighing around 18kN, suspended from a crane
and jetted to the depth where compaction is to begin by means of
pressurized water jetting from the tip of the Vibroflot.
 Lateral vibration of the Vibroflot then causes the soil to compact
horizontally. The Vibroflot is slowly raised while continuing to
vibrate thereby causing compaction horizontally from depth to the
surface.
 During the process additional sand is continually added from the
ground surface into the area around the Vibroflot to fill in the void
space created as the sand is compacted horizontally.
 As the compaction effect of the vibroflotation process extends
radially outward 1.2 to 1.5m from the Vibroflot, in order to cover an
entire area the process is normally repeated at a spacing of 3m or
so.
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Chapter 7: Ground Improvement Techniques

Vibroflotation
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Chapter 7: Ground Improvement Techniques

Dynamic compaction
 Involves repeated dropping of very heavy weight onto the soil from
a relatively great height.

 The dropped weight may be an ordinary steel wrecking ball or it

may be a mass especially designed for the dynamic-compaction
procedure (Typical weight range from 2 to 20 tons and the dropping
distances from 6 to 30m).

 Generally the heavier the weight and the greater the dropping
distance the greater the compaction effort. For a given situation
however the weight and the dropping distance used may depend
on the lifting equipment available.

 Dynamic compaction may be used for both cohesive and

cohesionless soils. It can also be utilised to compact buried refuse
fill areas.

 A closely spaced grid pattern for compaction is selected for a given

compaction site.
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Chapter 7: Ground Improvement Techniques

Dynamic compaction cont…
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Chapter 7: Ground Improvement Techniques

Dynamic compaction cont…
 The approximate depth of influence of dynamic compaction D may
be determined in terms of weight W and distance dropped h.
For cohesionless soils;

For cohesive soils

 These equations give the depth of zone D receiving improvement

in meters if W is in metric tones (1000kgs) and h in metres.

 Improvement is greater at the surface and decreases with depth

and increases with the number of drops up to some limit; 5 to 10
drops.

 With saturated soils satisfactory results may be obtained by

performing a series of drops at intervals of one or several days to
provide time for dissipation of pore water pressures created by the
previous compaction.
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Chapter 7: Ground Improvement Techniques

Mechanical Stabilisation
 Simple means of soil stabilisation that is carried out by adding soil
material to the naturally occurring soil.

 The added soil material is usually mechanically mixed with the

natural soil after which the mixture is compacted.
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Chapter 7: Ground Improvement Techniques

Chemical Stabilisation
 Chemical stabilisation is achieved by adding a cementing material
or some kind of chemical to the soil.
 The chemical may be mechanically mixed with the natural soil and
the resulting mixture compacted or the chemical material may be
simply applied to the natural soil and allowed to penetrate the soil
through the void space.
 Another process is to inject the stabilising chemical into or through
the soil under pressure (grouting).
 Many different chemicals have been used for chemical
stabilisation; Sodium Chloride, Calcium Chloride, cement, lime.
 Sodium Chloride and Calcium Chloride may be added to a soil
when it is desired to hold soil water. Sodium Chloride spread on the
surface of dirt roads can help with dust control on rural highways.
 Various kinds of cement (Portland or asphalt cement) may be
added to soil to bond the soil particles together. Portland cement
added to soil in the presence of water forms concrete. In the
construction of the soil-cement mixture the soil needs to be at or
near the optimum moisture content for maximum compaction.
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Chapter 7: Ground Improvement Techniques

Chemical Stabilisation cont…;
 In stabilisation by Portland cement the amount of cement added is
small (7% - 14% by weight for sandy to clayey soils respectively)
and the result is a stabilised soil that is stronger that the natural soil
but not nearly as strong as concrete.
 Cement stabilised soils may be used as road bases when traffic is
relatively light and not heavy weight.
 Lime and calcium chloride may be used as additives for high-
plasticity clayey soils where they serve to reduce plasticity.
 This technique can be effective in reducing volume changes
associated with certain expansive clays. The construction of lime
stabilisation requires mixing lime with natural soil, curing for a few
days, then remixing followed by compaction.
 There are available additional chemical stabilizers that can be used
for soil stabilisation some are marketed under trade names. The
chemical stabilizers described here are among the more common
ones. Geotechnical engineers’ practical experience is important in
deciding what specific type of chemical stabilisation to use in any
given situation.
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Chapter 7: Ground Improvement Techniques

Geosynthetics;
 Refers to a family of manufactured materials (sheet or netlike
products) made of plastics or fiberglass.

 They may be used to stabilise and reinforce soil masses, such as

erosion control or earth slope surfaces, reinforcing backfill or
retaining walls, reinforcing slopes or embankments, slop protection
to open channels and drainage control.

 They may be geotextiles, geogrids, geonets and geomembrane.

 Geotextiles are similar to woven fabric, or textiles. Common usages

for geotextiles are for strata separation, soil reinforcement, filtration
etc…

 Geogrids have larger openings (1 to 4in) than geotextiles and

therefore resemble nets. These are used in conjuction with
geotextiles to reinforce relatively poor soils over which paved
surfaces such as road and parking lots are to be constructed.
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Chapter 7: Ground Improvement Techniques

Geosynthetics cont…;

 Geonets are similar to geogrids but have intersecting ribs. They

may be used for drainage purposes under roadways and landfills
and behind retaining walls. They too are often used in conjuction
with geotextiles. Geonets are usually installed on a slope toward a
perforated drain pipe or a ditch.

 Geomembranes are impervious, thin plastic sheets. They are used

to prohibit, or greatly restrict, the movement of water within soil
masses. A common example of their use is as landfill liners to
prevent the movement of wastewater (leachate) from within the
land fill into surrounding soil strata.
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Chapter 7: Ground Improvement Techniques

Geosynthetics cont…;

High-resistance polyster woven geotextile being used for strata

separation
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Chapter 7: Ground Improvement Techniques

Geosynthetics cont…;

Geogrids being used to reinforce relatively poor soils.

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Geosynthetics cont…;

Geomembrane installation as part of the construction of a base liner

system of a landfill
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Chapter 7: Ground Improvement Techniques

Compaction & De-watering

*Refer previous lecture notes*