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Progressive yielding/softening of soil–cement columns under embankment loading: a case study

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Abstract

An embankment with a fill thickness of 7.5 m was built on a soil–cement column-slab system improved about 15.8 m thick soft subsoil. The embankment was stable for about 5 months after construction, and then, its settlement rate increased rapidly. To avoid the failure of the embankment, 1.0 m thick fill was removed and the embankment was stabilized again. The results of field investigation using all-core boring through a cement deep mixing (CDM) column under the central of the embankment and 3D finite element analysis (FEA) indicate that the most likely mechanism for the observed field behavior is progressive yielding/softening of the upper part of the columns. In FEA, the yielding/softening of the upper part of columns was simulated using strength reduction option and the start of the softening was triggered manually at the time of observed rapid increase in the settlement rate. This case history indicates that in field quality control of CDM columns, identifying local weak part(s) by continuous measuring the strength of the column samples retrieved from all-core boring is important. It is suggested that combination of unconfined compression test as well as needle penetration tests for the cores retrieved can be an economic and practical way to do this.

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Some or all data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the Ariake Sea Coastal Road Development Office (ASCRDO), Saga Prefecture, Japan, for permitting the publication of the field data of the test embankment section reported in this study. This work was financially supported by the Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (KAKENHI) of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) under a Grant No. 21K04256.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geotechnical Engineering, College of Civil Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, China

    Jin-chun Chai, Yafei Qiao & Wenqi Ding

  2. Faculty of Science and Engineering, Saga University, Honjo 1, Saga, 840-8502, Japan

    Jin-chun Chai & Takenori Hino

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  1. Jin-chun Chai
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  2. Takenori Hino
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Correspondence to Jin-chun Chai.

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Chai, Jc., Hino, T., Qiao, Y. et al. Progressive yielding/softening of soil–cement columns under embankment loading: a case study. Acta Geotech. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11440-024-02346-4

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