Soil-cement columns for high-rise buildings: design–testing–construction–monitoring: A case study of green solution in Vietnam

Abstract

Soil cement columns (SCCs) are commonly used to reinforce soft ground to support roads and railway embankments, or to withstand horizontal pressure for deep excavations. This study presents another application of SCCs as load-bearing foundations for high-rise building projects. SCCs with a diameter of 800 mm, length of 10 m, cement content of 350 kg/m3, and an unconfined compressive strength (UCS) of 3.6 MPa were applied. In this study, five single columns and one group constituting two columns were constructed, and core drilling and axial static load tests were conducted. The test results indicated that the SCC could achieve a load of 1,650 kN for a single pile and 3,300 kN for the group constituting two columns. In total, 1,123 columns were designed and constructed for this project. Compared with conventional reinforced concrete pile methods, a project using SCC could save 30 construction days and 20% of the total cost. Moreover, SCC can be considered a green and environmentally friendly foundation solution because it does not use concrete or steel materials and does not produce waste soil.