Ground Improvement

Aspects of ground preparation, development and compaction have been covered in Chap. 4 . The fact that compaction is done on ground surface, improvement by ‘on ground’ methods are effective primarily in upper levels depending upon soil type and input energy. The methods are not effective for improvement at greater depths. But improvement of soft ground at greater depths is necessary for economic design and construction of foundation avoiding piles. This chapter has been planned on methods of ‘in-ground’ improvement up to desired depths. The methods are based on principles of both ‘compaction’ (escape of air from void associated with re-orientation of soil particles) and ‘consolidation’ (escape of pore water) and/or combination of both. Improvement to great depth can also be achieved by adopting advanced technology by imparting vertical and radial vibrations of controlled frequency and amplitude into ground up to great depth.