Effect of Soil Improvement Techniques on Increasing the Lateral Resistance of Single Piles in Soft Clay (Numerical Investigation)

Soft clay soil extends in many areas all over the world. The construction on soft clay is one of the most important problems in engineering practice. When the design engineers face this problem, they always use deep foundations. In many cases, the vertical loads are satisfied but the lateral capacity of the piles is not satisfied. In this paper, a series of 3D finite element analysis was performed to investigate the effect of soil improvement techniques on increasing the lateral pile capacity. The 3D finite element results indicate that the improvement in the lateral pile capacity is strongly dependent on the combined effect of the lateral extent and the thickness of the improved zone around the pile head. The analysis indicates that the lateral pile capacity increased to about 240% greater than the capacity in native soft clay when a portion of soft clay is excavated and replaced with dense sand. In addition, the lateral pile capacity increased to a value greater than 600% when the soft clay is mixed with cement.