A Novel Reinforcement Method for Soft Soil Foundation: Numerical and Experimental Investigations

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6463-793-9_96How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Soft soil foundation; Three-dimensional drainage; Drainage consolidation; Reinforcement effect

Abstract

The utilization of soft soil in civil engineering projects is fraught with challenges, primarily due to its inherent weaknesses including high water content, high void ratio, high compressibility, low permeability, and low bearing capacity. This study proposes a novel three-dimensional sandy drainage system that integrates vertical sand columns and horizontal diffusing sand piers or slender sand belts formed high-pressure rotary jetting. The proposed method addresses the limitations of conventional techniques, including prolonged construction periods, environmental concerns associated with plastic drainage boards, and insufficient deep-layer treatment, by leveraging natural sand to establish an eco-friendly and efficient underground drainage network. To evaluate the performance of the novel reinforcement method, numerical simulations and large-scale consolidation tests were conducted. The numerical simulation results demonstrated that the placement of a horizontal drainage body at the mid-depth of a vertical sand column optimizes consolidation efficiency, reducing the time reaching the degree of consolidation of 90% by 44% (from 25.06 days to 13.99 days) and decreasing settlement by 8% compared to a system with only vertical drainage. Experimental tests further validated the superiority of the three-dimensional sandy drainage system over plastic drainage board and vertical sandy drainage, showing 55% higher vane shear strength at 20 cm depth. The horizontal sandy drainage body enhanced radial drainage capacity and introduced an "anchor effect" improving deep soil stability and bearing capacity. These findings highlight the proposed three-dimensional sandy drainage system as a sustainable and efficient solution for soft soil foundation reinforcement, offering significant advancements over existing techniques in both engineering performance and environmental compatibility.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Xu Liu
AU  - Wang Tang
AU  - Yaoting Zhu
AU  - Zhifa Yu
AU  - Ju Chen
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/07/28
TI  - A Novel Reinforcement Method for Soft Soil Foundation: Numerical and Experimental Investigations
BT  - Proceedings of the 2025 8th International Conference on Traffic Transportation and Civil Architecture (ICTTCA 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 1144
EP  - 1155
SN  - 2589-4943
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-793-9_96
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6463-793-9_96
ID  - Liu2025
ER  -