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Numerical Study of Soft Clay Reinforced with Deep Cement Mixing Technique

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Abstract

Deep soil mixing is widely used to improve the poor performance of shallow foundations resting on soft clay soil. In this study, the load-normalized settlement of soft clay soil reinforced by fully and partially penetrating deep cement mixing (DCM) columns was investigated using three-dimensional finite element software (PLAXIS 3D). This investigation was performed to simulate a strip footing loaded with a vertical stress resting on a soft clay soil reinforced with DCM columns. For finite element simulation, soil materials were modeled as a linearly elastic perfectly plastic material following Mohr–Coulomb failure criteria while DCM columns were considered as embedded pile. The analysis was performed by changing the improvement area ratio, defined as the ratio of the treated area to the loaded area, (Ar) of (6.5%, 13.1%, 19.6% and 26.2%) and considering three embedment ratios (L/D), defined as the column length to the column diameter, of (4, 6 and 8). The results obtained showed that reinforcing soft clay with DCM columns led to a significant improvement in the soil bearing capacity for the two cases of partially and fully penetrating columns. Also, a noticeable decrease in the footing settlement supported by the reinforced soil was achieved.

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Data availability

The authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article and its supplementary materials.

Abbreviations

DCM:

Deep cement mixing

UBC:

Ultimate bearing capacity (kPa)

γ :

Unit weight (kN/m3)

γ unsat :

Unsaturated unit weight (kN/m3)

γ sat :

Saturated unit weight (kN/m3)

c :

Cohesion (kPa)

L :

Column length (mm)

D :

Column diameter (mm)

A r :

Improvement area ratio (%)

N :

Number of DCM columns

S :

Center to center spacing between DCM columns (mm)

α :

Improvement factor for the given settlement reduction ratio (%)

PSR:

Percentage of settlement reduction (%)

E r :

Subgrade modulus of footing resting on reinforced soil with columns (kPa)

E ur :

Subgrade modulus of footing resting on soil without columns (kPa)

β :

Load sharing factor between DCM columns and soft clay soil

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This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Structural Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Tanta University, Tanta, Egypt

    Mohamed A. Sakr & Mostafa A. Elsawwaf

  2. Civil Engineering Department, Nile Higher Institute for Engineering and Technology, Mansoura, Egypt

    Ahmed K. Rabah

Authors
  1. Mohamed A. Sakr
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  2. Mostafa A. Elsawwaf
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  3. Ahmed K. Rabah
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Correspondence to Ahmed K. Rabah.

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Sakr, M.A., Elsawwaf, M.A. & Rabah, A.K. Numerical Study of Soft Clay Reinforced with Deep Cement Mixing Technique. Indian Geotech J 52, 1487–1504 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40098-022-00625-z

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