Control of Heave Action Using Micropile with Geotextile Layer in Expansive Soil

Abstract

Problematic soil needs great care to deal with, due to their swelling and shrinkage characteristics. Due to moisture variation, the volume of the soil varies accordingly and often leads to differential settlement on superstructure and foundation. Such a nature of expansiveness of soil leads to create negative skin friction on the pile foundation, which further increased the cost of design and construction. To counteract such arisen problem, we made an extensive effort using an application of the geotextile in the foundation soil beside the traditionally available methods of stabilization by different means. A combined system of geotextile and micropile was tested in a series of the experimental plan with and without geotextile. The present study shows the findings of the extensive research which was carried out for understanding the effectiveness of geotextile micropile system. Field condition was constructed in the laboratory by a model tank. Heave action was examined using the dial gauge reading, and comparison was made with a footing base without micropile. Geotextile was used in the single and two-layer, single at 0.33 B and doubled at 0.33 B and 0.67 B from the footing plate. Test results show that it has a 48% reduction in heave by using the four micropiles. Further with adding the geotextile layers, it has 63 and 71% heave reduction for one- and two-layer geotextile, respectively.