Field Tests, Modification, and Application of Deep Soil Mixing Method in Soft Clay

The installation of soil-cement columns causes excess pore-water pressures and movements of surrounding ground, which affect adjacent underground structures. In Shanghai, a triple-shaft deep soil mixing (DSM) method has been proposed and is widely used to minimize the installation effects. However, when this DSM method was used to install soil-cement columns close to a Metro tunnel, unacceptable soil displacement was caused, even at the very beginning. Therefore, it was decided to conduct field tests to investigate the effect of major factors affecting DSM installations and then modify the construction parameters so that the soil displacement caused by DSM construction would not exceed the allowable limit. The field tests consisted of two phases: Phase I tests of single DSM column installations close to the Metro tunnel to modify the construction parameters, and Phase II tests of continuous multiple DSM column installations far from the Metro tunnel to validate the modified construction parameters. Detailed pore-water pressure and soil displacement measurements were conducted during the field tests. Based on the field tests, the traditional DSM method was modified by using a higher water/cement ratio, lower mixing speed, and no injection during withdrawal, and adopting a new installation sequence for continuous construction that started from the farthest row and moved closer to the tunnel. Using the modified construction parameters, the triple-shaft DSM method was successfully applied to the large-scale soil improvement of an underground highway excavation project close to the Metro tunnels. This paper describes the background, the field tests, the modified DSM method, and its successful application.