Dry-air technology for stabilising weak deposits

Abstract

Many available ground improvement techniques are effective, but involve large amounts of carbon dioxide emissions. Any green ground improvement technique would thus be beneficial. In this work, dry air, supplied at low pressure and relative humidity, was used to remove water from a soft soil deposit. The investigation was carried out at model scale, with a soft soil layer formed in a box of size 1.0 × 1.0 × 0.75 m. The soil bed was fitted with slender granular columns for the injection of dry air. The technique is the reverse process of vacuum consolidation, in which the magnitude of negative pore water pressure that can be applied to the soil is limited and thus requires careful construction procedures. The dry-air approach is simple and does not require any complex construction procedures. The investigations carried out over a limited period showed a significant improvement in the strength of the soil bed, indicating possible full-scale implementation. Full-scale implementation of the technique may not require any new construction methods as the procedure is very similar to that adopted in vacuum consolidation. However, variabilities in ground conditions, including the groundwater table, may pose additional challenges and supplementary information (soil–water characteristic data and numerical modelling) may be necessary to implement this technique at full scale.