Ground remediation
The building and construction industry has used ground remediation for many years in a wide variety of construction and civil engineering applications. These techniques improve the bearing strength of the soil and make it suitable for carrying heavier loads.
In some cases, these techniques can also be used to modify the ground as a method to mitigate some of the secondary effects of seismic shaking, such as liquefaction, settlement and lateral movement.
Remediation techniques can generally be categorised as:
- replacement to remove liquefiable soil
- densification to increase the soil’s strength and stiffness
- solidification to improve the soil’s stability (binding)
- reinforcement to support and reinforce the soil
- drainage to reduce the water in the soil and prevent liquefaction.
How successful these techniques are in seismic ground improvement applications depends largely on the conditions of the site, design of the improvement system and type and severity of the ground shaking.
If used incorrectly or at a site that is unsuitable, some remediation techniques can produce non-uniform ground conditions and create weak areas that are highly susceptible to secondary effects, such as liquefaction.
In this section:
- Replacement techniques
- Densification techniques
- Solidification techniques
- Reinforcement techniques
- Drainage techniques