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Experimental investigations on ultimate bearing capacity of peat stabilized by a group of soil–cement column: a comparative study

Acta Geotechnica volume 11, pages 295–307 (2016)Cite this article

Abstract

The aim of this paper was to determine the ultimate vertical bearing capacity of rectangular rigid footings resting on homogeneous peat stabilized by a group of cement deep mixing (CDM) columns. For this purpose, a series of physical modeling tests involving end-bearing and floating CDM columns were performed. Three length/depth ratios of 0.25, 0.5, and 0.75 and three area improvement ratios of 13.1, 19.6, and 26.2 % were considered. Bearing capacity of the footings was studied using different analytical procedures. The results indicated that compared to unimproved peat, the average ultimate bearing capacity (UBC) improvement of floating and end-bearing CDM columns were 60 and 223 %, respectively. The current study found that simple Brom’s method predicted the UBC of the peat stabilized with floating CDM columns with reasonable accuracy, but underestimated the UBC by up to 25 % in the case of end-bearing CDM columns. Published laboratory experiences of stabilizing soft soils using soil–cement columns were also collated in this paper.

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Abbreviations

CDM:

Cement deep mixing

UBC:

Ultimate bearing capacity

OPC:

Ordinary Portland cement

B :

Footing width

l :

Column length

h :

Height of the box

c uc :

Undrained shear strength of the column

c us :

Undrained shear strength of the soil

q uc :

Unconfined compression of the column

R :

UBC reduction factor

α :

Area improvement ratio

c c :

Compression index

c r :

Recompression index

λ :

Constant coefficient (5.5)

q min :

Lower bound of UBC

q max :

Upper bound of UBC

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil Engineering, University Technology Malaysia, 81310, Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia

    Ali Dehghanbanadaki, Kamarudin Ahmad & Nazri Ali

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  1. Ali Dehghanbanadaki
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  2. Kamarudin Ahmad
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Correspondence to Ali Dehghanbanadaki.

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Dehghanbanadaki, A., Ahmad, K. & Ali, N. Experimental investigations on ultimate bearing capacity of peat stabilized by a group of soil–cement column: a comparative study. Acta Geotech. 11, 295–307 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11440-014-0328-x

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Keywords

  • Bearing capacity
  • Cement column
  • Failure patterns
  • Peat soils
  • Stabilization