Reducing settlement of soft clay using different grouting materials

Abstract

Abstract Different injection material types were tried in the injection of soft clay, such as lime (L), silica fume (SF), and leycobond-h (LH). In this study, experiments were made to study the effect of injection on soft clay consolidation settlement. A sample of natural soft clayey soil was investigated in the laboratory and the sample was injected with each of the grout materials used, L, SF, L + SF, and L + SF + LH. A 20 cm3 of each slurry grout was conducted into the soil, which was compacted in California Bearing Ratio (CBR) mold and cured for 7 days, and then the sample was loaded to 80 N load by a circular steel footing 60 mm in diameter. The settlement was recorded. The sample of each slurry grout, which provided minimum settlement, was chosen (L + SF + LH). To reduce soft clay settlement before and after footing construction, four cases were investigated. The impact of injection hole spacing and grout depth was studied. It was discovered that injecting a slurry of (L + SF + LH) into the soft clay beneath or surrounding the footing increased bearing capacity by 5–88%. Due to the shape of shear failure of the soft clay around the footing, grouting near the footing at a distance of 0.5 diameter of the footing is more effective than grouting at a distance of 1.0 diameter of the footing, and grouting near the footing at a distance of 0.5 diameter of the footing is more effective than grouting at a distance of 1.0 diameter of the footing.