Densification of Land Reclamation Sands by Deep Vibratory Compaction Techniques
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 26, Issue 8
Abstract
Loose granular sand deposits formed during the land reclamation process are vulnerable to liquefaction upon imparting seismic forces. These loose granular sand fills could encounter bearing failures or compress beyond tolerable limits under static and dynamic loads. To eliminate such failures, loose granular soils require densification to enhance their engineering properties. Deep compaction is the only means to improve these thick deposits of loose sand fill in many foreshore land reclamation projects. Muller resonance compaction (MRC) and vibroflotation are deep vibratory compaction techniques, which are suitable to densify thick layers of loose granular fills. This paper describes the applications of deep compaction vibratory techniques in a mega-land reclamation project in the Republic of Singapore where the efficacy of densification was verified by cone penetration tests (CPT) undertaken in a pilot test area. In the MRC technique, high vibrating energies are used, which results in the whole mass of soil being rearranged, but a weak point was found at the location of the probing point. In vibroflotation, the densified column of soil was found to form at and surrounding the probe point, and the density of the granular soil reduced with distance from the probe point. The aging effect in vibroflotation was found to be significant. Vibroflotation was found to have several advantages compared with the MRC technique. Because of the excess water in the pore spaces caused by the high pressure jetting in vibroflotation, the water pressure dissipation further enhances the densification due to the aging effect.
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Acknowledgments
This research was supported under Australian Research Council’s Linkage Projects funding scheme (project number LP0989164). The third author is grateful to the Suranaree University of Technology and the Thailand Research Fund (TRF) under the TRF Senior Research Scholar program grant number (No.) RTA5680002.
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Information & Authors
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Published In
Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 26 • Issue 8 • August 2014
Copyright
© 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: May 24, 2013
Accepted: Dec 26, 2013
Published online: Dec 28, 2013
Published in print: Aug 1, 2014
Discussion open until: Sep 29, 2014
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