A New Calculation Method for Life Cycle Settlement of Soft Ground with Creep Treated by Columns
Publication: International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 23, Issue 6
Abstract
For soft soils, creep settlement plays an important role in the full life cycle performance of infrastructures, which is a serious concern for engineers and researchers. Columns such as deep cement mixed (DCM) soil columns are commonly adopted to treat soft grounds in order to reduce the life cycle settlement of the infrastructures. However, the creep behavior of soft grounds treated by DCM soil columns is often ignored, inducing underestimated total settlements or unexpected differential settlements. In this study, a new calculation method is developed for the life cycle settlement of column-improved soft grounds by considering the creep of soft soils and load transfer between the columns and the surrounding soils. A physical model test with double-layer soil improved by DCM soil columns is designed and performed to demonstrate the feasibility of the calculation method. It is found that the settlements calculated by the proposed method show good agreement with the measured data in the physical model. A parametric study is conducted, revealing that the calculated settlement of the double-layer soil improved by DCM columns can be largely influenced by the stress concentration ratio, the permeability of the DCM columns, and the area replacement ratio. Finally, the proposed method is applied to calculate the settlement in a real project.
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Data Availability Statement
All data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
We are thankful for the financial support provided by National Natural Science Foundation of China (52278356); National Natural Science Foundation of China (51878619, 52078465); Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovation Commission (JCYJ20210324105210028); and Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province, China (2022A1515010118). This work was also supported by the General Research Fund (GRF) (PolyU 152179/18E, PolyU 152130/19E, PolyU 15210020); a Research Impact Fund (R5037-18); a Theme-based Research Scheme project T22-502/18-R from the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government of China; and Grants (CD82 and CD7A) from the Research Institute of Land and Space, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, China.
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Published In
International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 23 • Issue 6 • June 2023
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© 2023 American Society of Civil Engineers.
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Received: Apr 7, 2022
Accepted: Jan 3, 2023
Published online: Apr 12, 2023
Published in print: Jun 1, 2023
Discussion open until: Sep 12, 2023
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