Dynamic Properties of Soil Cements for Numerical Modelling of the Foundation’s Basis Transformed under the Technology of Deep Soil Mixing: A Determination Method

Abstract

This research investigates the mechanical properties of soil-cement specimens ranging from ultrasmall to large values of shear strain at dynamic loading. The nonlinear behavior of soil cement exposed to dynamic loading in a wide range of changing shear strains was examined on the basis of two mechanical models. All soil-cement specimens were collected from under an existing building and modified with deep soil mixing (DSM.). Soil-cement samples were examined using low-amplitude oscillations in the resonant column and the dynamic triaxial compression method. Additionally, the stress–strain state for modified footings exposed to dynamic loading, and the approximation of soil stiffness and damping coefficient was analyzed. Dependencies on the basis of the resilient elastic models of Ramberg–Osgood and Hardin–Drnevich are proposed for application. Results reveal that the empirical graphs of the dependency soil stiffness–shear strain based on various methods exhibited the distinctive S-shape of decreased stiffness. The stiffness of the soil cement was reduced by 50% of the maximal value at shear strains of the 10−3 decimal order. The method presented in this study enables the drawing of stiffness change and damping–shear strain dependency where the range of shear strains changes from ultrasmall to large strains. The normalized modulus of shearing and the damping coefficient on shear strains for soil cement could be obtained under the proposed method. This method can be used for the preliminary calculations of structures on the footing modified by mathematical modelling or when field research data from site investigation are not available.