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Ground Improvement Techniques Essay

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“GROUND IMPROVEMENT TECHNIQUES”

1. ABSTRACT:

Ground improvement is the most imaginative field of geotechnical engineering. It is a field in which the engineer forces the ground to adopt the project's requirements, by altering the natural state of the soil, instead of having to alter the design in response to the ground's natural limitations. The results usually include saving in construction cost and reduction of implementation time. There are number of techniques available for improving the mechanical and engineering properties of the soil. However, each technique has some limitations and suit abilities to get maximum improvement in the soil conditions with minimum effort. Some of the …show more content…

In this paper these are discussed first before taking up above techniques.

3.1. REMOVAL AND REPLACEMENT OF SOIL: One of the oldest and simplest soil improvement methods is to simply excavate the unsuitable soil and replace them with compacted fill. This method is often used when the problem the soil is that it is too loose. In that case, the same soils used to build the fill, except now it has a higher unit weight (because of compaction) and thus has been better engineering properties. This is a common way to remediate problems with collapsible soils.

Removal also may be available option when the excavated soils have other problems, such as contamination or excessive organics, and need to hauled away. This method can be expensive because of the hauling costs and the need for imported soils to replace those that were excavated. It also can be difficult to find a suitable disposal site for the excavated soils. Removal and replacement is generally practical only above the ground water table. Earthwork operations become more difficult when the soil is very wet, even when the free water pumped out, and thus are generally avoided unless absolutely necessary.
3.2. PRECOMPRESSION OF SOIL: Another old and simple method of improving soils is to cover them with a temporary surcharge fill as shown in figure. This method is called precompression, preloading, or surcharging. It is

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