Engineering Tools for Design of Embankments on Deep Mixed Foundation Systems

Construction of embankments on soft ground poses a challenge to the design engineer to address settlement and stability concerns. For this reason a wide range of technologies has been developed for support of embankment foundations on soft ground, including deep soil mixing. One barrier for implementation of these technologies is lack of engineering guides for feasibility study, preliminary evaluation, simplified analysis and design tools, quality assessment and monitoring of the constructed facility. This paper aims to presents several initiatives for developing engineering guides to address these deficiencies when deep mixing and geosynthetics is used for support of embankments. The initiatives include, synthesizing the-state-of-the practice in the US and overseas, developing design charts for geosynthetically reinforced embankments on deep mixed columns, evaluating in situ methods for quality assessment, and developing a simplified tool to handle uncertainties associated with interpretation of strength and stiffness of soil cement using reliability theory. This effort is expected to provide practitioners with engineering tools, advance the state of current practice, and enhance the user's confidence in applying deep mixing and geosynthetics system for embankment support.