MUHAMMAD FALIHIN ABD MALLEK (2013574483)

SOIL IMPROVEMENT
UNSTABLE SOIL CONDITION IN MALAYSIA
Coastal Deposits / Marine Clay Inland valley Deposits / Old alluvium Ex-mining Land Manmade Earth Fills

Soft marine clay is found e.g along the west
coast of West Malaysia at Johor, Melaka,
Pelabuhan Klang, Pulau Pinang and Alor
Star
Depth may even exceed 40m. Normally the
thickness is 5m to 20m.
Water content of the soft marine clay is
generally high, typically 60% to 80%

These are inland valley deposits which
though not as poor as the coastal deposits,
nevertheless require some attention as they
are unconsolidated sediments.
An appreciable proportion of the deposits
are wash from nearby hills. They are
usually a mixture of sandy silty clays, silty
clay as well as more distinct clay and sandy
material.
The ground with clay layers can be linked to
a sponge which contains water. The weight
of the building pumps out the water from the
clay layers, resulting in the block sinking.


20% of Kuala Lumpur is ex-mining areas.
Ex-mining land is very poor foundation
ground. This is because of its soil have been
segregated during the mining process.
The segregated soil varying between
extremely soft clay to very loose sand.
While the sandy material has been
recovered as a useful source of construction
sand, the slime and the ponds create
problem areas requiring some form of
treatment.

Man-made earth fills created during
earthworks will also require treatment as
the fills have not been constructed in
compacted layers.
These man-made fills can be said to be the
most common source of low-rise building
foundations failures and slope failures in
Malaysia

SOIL IMPROVEMENT PRELOADING
Objective:

To improve or to change properties of soil deposits for
the purpose of:
- strength increase,
- settlement control,
- seepage control
- Reducing liquefaction potential under seismic
loadings.
Factors affect the choice of a soil improvement method:
- The objectives of treatment or improvement
and the intended use of the treated ground.
- The extent of improvement, including area,
depth and total volume of soil to be treated.
- Soil type and properties.
- Availability of materials such as sands, gravel or
admixture.
- Environmental factors.
- Local experience and practice.
- Time schedule

Definition:
Is a temporary loading applied at a construction site to improve subsurface soils by pre
compressing the soft compressible subsoil prior to any permanent structure.

Objective:
For the case of eliminating excessive post construction settlement:
Preloading is used to pre compress the soils so as to induce settlements beyond the anticipated
values.
For the case of ensuring adequate foundation stability:
Preloading is used to pre compress the soils so as to increase its shear strength and thus
increasing its bearing capacity.
SOIL IMPROVEMENT METHOD
Geometrical Methods Mechanical Methods Physical and Chemical Methods Structural Methods

Where the moment or force causing the failure or
the settlement is reduced.

- floating foundation
- light weight Fills
- pressure berms


Where the shear strength is increased or the
compressibility is reduced by reducing the water
content of the soil.

- preloading (often combined with vertical
drains to increase the consolidation rate)
- deep Compaction Using Blasting
- heating
- surface Compaction

Where the shear strength is increased and the
compressibility of soft clay is reduced by altering
the clay e.g. freezing or by mixing the soil with lime,
cement or other methods.

- ground stabilization
- electro-osmosis
- freezing

Where structural elements such as geofabric, piles
or stone columns are used to reinforce the soil or to
transfer the load to an underlying less compressible
stratum or layer.

- Deep Compaction using Vibrational
Compaction and Dynamic Compaction
- Geotextiles, Geofabrics and geomembranes
- Grouting
- Excavation and replacement
- Soil nailing
- Piles
MUHAMMAD FALIHIN ABD MALLEK (2013574483)

PRELOADING METHOD
Fill surcharging Water loading Groundwater lowering Vacuum dewatering

Most commonly used method of preloading.
The principle is to increase the total load in
the soil which at the same time increases
the excess pore water pressure.
As the pore water pressure dissipates the
effective stress in the soil will increase by
the same amount thus, the effect of pre
consolidation.
The cost and availability of the require
quantities of surcharge materials (earthfills
and/or sand) need to be considered in this
method.
For high surcharge on soft soils, stage
loading is usually carried out.

Water loading in storage tanks is often
economical where tanks are to be water-
tested
The tank is constructed prior to soil
improvement;
then it is filled with water incrementally.
Before each filling, time is allowed for the
ground to stabilise under the weight of the
previous one.
After the tank has been filled to the top and
the time rate of settlement has diminish
sufficiently, its contents are emtied and its
base levelled by jacking.
The method is well suited to tanks used for
liquid storage because they are usually built
of flexible steel plates.
It saves the cost and time involved in
bringing and removing fill materials (as in
the case of surcharging).
Filling with water is relatively inexpensive
and can be accomplished without much
delay;

This is achieved by well pints, trenches, or
vacuum pumping in relatively deep wells
(about 20m).
As the water table drops, the soil losses its
buoyancy, and its unit weight increases by
about 10kn/m i.e. every metre of water level
drop produces about the same loading as
half a metre of fill.
By lowering the groundwater table, the
problem of base failure as in the case of
surcharge can be eliminated.
Generally, this method is not preferred due
to its high cost of operation.

An impermeable membrane is placed over a
layer of sand and sealed along the
perimeter of the area to be treated.
The grid of vertical drains continues into the
sand layer so that the vacuum induced in
the surface layer penetrates into the drain
system. The differential pore pressures
causes consolidation.
The vacuum created by vacuum pumps
available in the present market causes the
external atmospheric pressure to load the
membrane and sand fill up to an equivalent
of 4m of sand fill.


Dynamic Compaction
- A process of enforcing settlement on the ground before
construction begins.
- Consists of repeatedly dropping, under carefully controlled
condition, a heavy weight (concrete blocks or steel plate bolted
together) of between 6 to 40 tones in free fall from a height of
between 5m to 35m on to the soil surface



Dynamic Replacement
- This method consists in forming large diameter rock
pillars through the soft soil (soft organic clay, silt or
peat) down to the bed rock or supporting stratum.
- Achieved by repeatedly dropping heavy pounders onto
the crushed rock or gravel fill which has previously
been laid on top of the soft ground.
- This forms a free draining column 4 to 12m. In silt or peat the shear strength of the soil below and
around the column will gradually increases due to the reduction of the water content as the soil
reconsolidates.


VERTICAL DRAINS

Sand Drains

- The drains are normally placed in a
triangular or in rectangular pattern at a
spacing of 1.0 to 1.5m between the drains.
- A standard pile driving rig is often used for
the installation of the sand drains as
illustrated.
- A large diameter steel pipe or casing is
driven down the soil.
- The bottom of the pipe is closed by a trap
door thereby displacing the soil during the
driving;
- The maximum length of the drains is about
30m.
-

Pre-fabricated Band-shaped Vertical Drains

- Prefabricated vertical drains are band-
shaped with a plastic core wrapped by a
filter sleeve.
- The plastic core provides channels for the
discharge of water, provides strength during
installation and resistance to crushing from
the soil pressure at depth.
- The function of outer filter sleeve is to
ensure that fine particles are not able to
pass through and clog the drainage
channels in the core. The size of drains is
usually 100mm width and the thickness
varies between 2 and 7mm.
- A thin walled steel pipe is used for the
installation of band drains.
- Installation rate is high. Up to 4000 to
5000m

MUHAMMAD FALIHIN ABD MALLEK (2013574483)

Vibrating compaction
- Used to compact regular soils down to about 40m depth.
- It is carried out by means of some type of vibrating probe.





Grouting
- Defined as the injection of appropriate materials under pressure into certain parts of the earths
crust through specially constructed holes in order to fill and therefore seal voids, fissures, seams,
cracks or other cavities in soils or rock strata and then harden.

Vibro displacement
- used in either partially saturated clays or fully saturated
non-cohesive soils with an undrained shear strength
range of 30-60kN/m
- same basic equipment as the vibro compaction
technique.
- the vibrodisplacement technique is a dry process

Vibro replacement
- the wet vibro replacement process is generally applied to
very soft to soft sensitive clays, fully saturated silts and
all laminated alluvial
- The vibraflot penetrater the soil by the cutting action of
the water jet which form an oversized hole




TYPE OF GROUTING

Conventional / Penetration Grouting

- A grout is forced into the soil through pipes which
have been strategically placed to limit the zone of
soil to be treated. Different injection methods have
been developed. If a single-phase injection is
sufficient there are two processes which are usually
used combining drilling and injection




Compaction Grouting

- Specialized technique used for controlled
densification of in situ soils at depth. The basic
concept of compaction grouting is that of injecting an
expending bulb of highly viscous grout with high
internal friction into a compactible soil so that, acting
as a hydraulic jack, it can physically displace the
surrounding soil particles and thus radially compact
the soil from the point of injection.
- When maximum compaction of the soil surrounding
each grout bulb is achieved, the pressure will cause a
conical shearing of the soil above the grout bulb. This
action will result in a lift of the overlying soil and
accompanying lift of the involved foundation.

Jet Grouting

- The method is applicable for modifying relatively soft soil to
achieve general ground improvement or to construct structural
or load bearing members without prior excavation.
- Jet grouting is radically different from conventional grouting.
- The process itself, the equipment and the final subsurface
products are all different.
- The products is soil-create made by intimate, hydraulic-
induced mixing of cement slurry with native soil.
- The soilcrete product is usually in the shape of a cylindrical
column.
- The shape depends on the native soil and the way the process
is applied.

Vibro-wing
- A vibro-wing consists of a steel rod which is provided with 0.8m long wings
spaced 0.5m apart is driven down to the required depth of the compaction by a
vibrotary hammer
- The rod is then pulled out slowly as the soil is vibrated vertically
- The spacing between the compaction point depends upon the grain size of the
soil: from about 5m for fine sand to about 1.5m for course sand.


Terra probe
- In this method, an open ended 0.76m diameter pipe is used. The wall thichkness is 9.5mm and the
frequency is 15Hz.
- The probe is generally 3m to 5m longer than the required depth of the compaction.


Franki Y-Probe
- The probe consists of three long steel plates which are joined together at 120 degrees angles
- The plates are 0.5m wide and 20mm thick. Ribs which are spaced 2m apart are welded on to both
sides of the plates in order to increase the efficiency