Recent Developments in Ground Improvement Techniques - A Review

In recent years rapid development of infrastructures in metro cities compounded with scarcity of useful land and compelled the engineers to improve the properties of soil to bear the load transferred by the infrastructure e.g Buildings, bridges, roadways railways etc. The engineering techniques of ground improvement are removal and replacement, pre-compression, vertical drains, in-situ densification, grouting, stabilization using admixtures and reinforcement. The purpose of these techniques to increase bearing capacity of soil and reduce the settlement to a considerable extent. The one of the method among ground improvement techniques is reinforcing the soil with materials like steel, stainless steel, aluminum, fibers, fiber glass, nylon, polyster, polyamides in the form of other strips or grids and Geotextiles. The Primary purpose of reinforcing a soil mass is to improve its stability, increasing its bearing capacity and reduce Settlements and Lateral deformations. Geotextiles and geomembranes, broadly speaking are synthetic fibres used to stabilize structures built on soil. The new widely accepted generic term for these non natural materials is Geosynthetics. Geosynthetics include permeable and impermeable materials that are either of knitted, woven, or non-woven nature, as well as polymer grids and meshes. The role of geosynthetic material varies in different application as it can serve as reinforcement, separation, filtration, protection, containment, fluid transmission and confinement of soil to improve bearing capacity. Geocell reinforcement is a recently developed technique in the area of soil reinforcement having a three dimensional, polymeric, honeycomb like structure of cells made out of geo-grids inter connected at joints. Selection processes for ground improvement methodologies, improved analysis, and knowledge of long term performance and understanding of effects of variability are required to develop more efficient designs. This paper presents a review on recent development in ground improvement techniques. Keywords— Ground improvement, Geosynthetics, Vibrocompaction, Prefabricated vertical drains, Soil reinforcement.