Experimental Determination of Optimal Improvement Depth in Homogeneous Sand Soils

In this study, the depth of the improvement which will be made under a foundation which lies on soft soil is investigated experimentally. If the characteristics of the soil on which a building will be constructed are not sufficient to bear the loads coming from that building, then the ground is improved. Jet grout It is one of the soil improvement methods and is frequently applied in our country. When stabilizing the soil, improvement should generally be made to the underlying stiff soil layer. However, in cases where the solid ground layer is deep, the depth to which the improvement is to be made depends solely on the assumptions made for the solids calculated from the elasticity theory. According to these theories, which consider the ground as elastic and incompressible, the stresses on the subsoil soils are effective up to a depth of 1,5-2,0 times the width (B) of the foundation. Since soil improvement is a costly process, engineers do not make improvements to these depths. In this study, the bearing capacity of the foundations which are improved at different depths was determined experimentally. In order to model the soft soils and foundations in terms of bearing capacity, a continuous steel model foundation resting on loose and medium-firm sandy ground was used. The improved soil under the continuous foundation was modeled by using concrete blocks and experimental results were obtained. It was determined that the superficial improvement to be made on loose soils with insufficient bearing capacity had no significant effect on bearing capacity. However, as the depth of improvement increases, the increase in bearing capacity increases to a