Environment effect on mechanical parameters of soil-mixing

Abstract

Soil improvement is originally an economical solution to make soil buildable, particularly compared to deep foundation methods using piles. The object of this research is the understanding of the behavior of soil-mixing material, in particular, what concerns the effect of environmental parameters, whether: temperature, water table level, chemical attacks, the phenomenon of aging etc. on the mechanical and physical characteristics (resistance to simple compression, resistance to simple bending, modulus of elasticity, porosity, density, etc.), of a soil-mixing column, in the short term and long term. The big problem is how to carry out experiments in the laboratory, which will be representative of the different phenomena that take place on a real scale (on site). To do this, our approach consists of studying different soil-mixing mixtures composed of «artificial» soils (clay and sand) and a CEM III/C cement, and with a variable W/C ratio. After making the test pieces, with the different dosages of cements and a ratio between clay and fixed sand, they were kept under normal temperature conditions, in order to reach a maturation age (180 days), to be able to begin the series of experiments. Once the specimens were subjected to the aging test, let’s begin to crush them with simple compression and simple bending. The parametric study highlights a percentage of clay beyond of which the resistance decreases and the rigidity of the material can pose a problem for certain structural uses. The different results obtained show that for a low cement dosage, the humidification-drying cycle influences both the resistance to simple compression and to bending simple, as well as the number of cycles affects the resistance values significantly. On the other hand, for a greater or lesser dosage of cement, the resistance values are not affected. Based on the results obtained, it is possible to conclude that the choice of cement dosage depending on the nature of the soil influences the soil-mixing column and plays an important role on the lifespan of the column; therefore, it is necessary to give primary importance to the choice of cement dosage depending on the nature of the soil treated.