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ABSTRACT: For the construction of a housing complex in Zell am See, Austria, a vibro-compaction
and vibro-concrete-columns in coarse-grained soils were carried out. The soil-compaction was controlled by CPT. In the area of vibro-compaction a uniform soil-improvement with a rise of the coneresistance qc by the factor 6 was measured. Near the vibro-concrete-columns an increase of the cone resistance qc from 5 MPa to 15 MPa was observed. The compaction of the sand reaches a distance of 2.4
m, with a continuous reduction. From pile load test results a settlement of 5 mm with a load of 800 kN,
that correlates with the calculated pile bearing capacity based on LCPC-method.
1 INTRODUCTION
In Austria CPT is more or less a new technology, which is due to the predominant alpine area with rocky
soil, where CPT cannot be used. The common practice for soil-investigation is core-drilling and dynamic-probing. But some intra-alpine basins are filled with soft-soils (postglacial sediments) that can be examined very well with CPT. Therefore two years ago our company decided to introduce this system to
Austria.
Figure 1 Location of the case study and relevant areas for CPT in Austria.
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The following case-study is situated in Zell am See, that lies in an intra-alpine basin, which was eroded
more than 300 m during ice-time and postglacialy refilled mainly with sand, silt and clay.
An interesting fact is that nearby in 1995 a road-bridge was founded on the European-recorddiaphragm-wall with a depth of 104 m.
About 500 m south of the lake of Zell am See a housing complex including structures with and without basement was planned. According to the difficult geological situation and the high water table for
the parts with basement, vibro-compaction was carried out to reduce the groundwater-flow into the excavation. The buildings without basements were founded on vibro-concrete-columns.
2 GEOLOGY AND SOIL CONDITIONS
In the construction-area the overburden consists of fill, peat and silt up to a depth of 3 m. Below 3 m are
deep sand sediments with a cone resistance qc of 2 MPa, in which from 3 m to 6 m fine gravel is included that causes a rise of the qc-value up to 4 MPa. A typical CPT profile is shown in Figure 2. For these
sands a high permeability was detected. In deeper layers sometimes we have a certain fine gravelcontent.
The groundwater-table lies 3 m under the surface and because of the impermeable overburden the
groundwater is confined. A rise of the groundwater up to 1 m below surface was measured.
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3 VIBRO-COMPACTION
The houses with basement have a foundation-depth of 3 m. Because of the local soil conditions and the
high groundwater-table the excavation-pit was stabilized with sheet piles. In order to reduce the waterflow into the pit and not to lower the groundwater outside, that could cause damages on the neighboring
structures, the sand from 3m to 10 m was improved using vibro-compaction. Gravel material 0/70 with
compaction-points in a grid of 1.5 m by 1.5 m was driven into the soil using a vibro-compaction system
by KELLER foundations.
To determine the soil quality CPT soundings before and after the compaction-works were carried out.
Generally in the sand/fine gravel from 3 m to 6 m the cone resistance qc rises from 4 MPa to 25 MPa
and in the sand from 6 m to 10 m the qc-values increase from 2 MPa to 12 MPa. The result is that in both
coarse-grained soil-horizons the cone resistance qc after the compaction is 6 times higher than before.
Figure 3 shows an overlay: CPT-5-pre before, CPT-5-post-between after the compaction between the
compaction points and CPT-5-post-direct after the compaction direct on a compaction point.
Figure 3 Comparison: CPT 5-pre (magenta) CPT 5-post-between (black) CPT 5-post-direct (cyan)
As the sleeve friction fs were also rising, the friction ratio Rf did not change significant. For that reason
the SBT-Index Ic shows a more coarse-grained soil, but this is a misinterpretation likely due to the complex stress history from ground improvement. With several CPTs a similar good compaction all over
the construction area was detected.
Additionally the time effect should be determined, because a time-dependent increase of the soil
strength had been expected following the compaction. But no significant difference between the CPT after one day and after ten days was measured.
As this soil-compaction was carried out in order to make the soil lower permeable, the required
pump-rate of 10 l/s was about 10 times lower than the calculated pump-rate of 100 l/s without soilimprovement. Photographs of the site during construction are shown in Figures 4 and 5.
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4 VIBRO-CONCRETE-COLUMNS
For the buildings without basement a shallow-foundation was not possible because of the organic overburden. Originally small-diameter, low-pressure grouted steel piles were designed but the contractor decided to carry out vibro-concrete-columns system by KELLER foundations. One reason was that the
same machine as for the vibro-compaction could be used and no extra site equipment was necessary.
With a column-diameter of 60 cm for a design-load of 400 kN a column-length of 11 m was calculated.
The compaction of the sands in the local area of a test-pile was investigated with four CPTs in a continuing distance of 60 cm from the pile. Just near the pile the following cone-resistance qc values were
measured: in the clay-like overburden there was no change in qc, whereas in the coarse-grained sands
(qc-rise from 2 MPa to 6 MPa) and fine gravely-sands (qc-rise from 5 MPa to 15 MPa) the averageincrease-factor was 3.
The cross section in Figure 6 and the overlay plot in Figure 7 show the continuous decrease of qcvalues with the increase of the distance. In a distance of about 2.5 m no change of the originally soilconditions can be seen any more. The compaction-effect has a range of 4 times the column-diameter;
that was larger than expected.
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Figure 7 green: original CPT; red: CPT dist. 60 cm; cyan: CPT dist. 120 cm; blue: CPT dist. 180 cm; magenta: CPT dist. 240 cm
Figure 8 shows the detailed values of qc versus the distance. The blue line (qc in the fine gravely sand after vibro-compaction) has a similar continuous decrease-line as the red line for the sand; only the values
are different. In a distance of about 250 cm the original values of qc are reached.
A pile-load test on one of the vibro-concrete-columns gave a settlement of 5 mm with a load of 800
kN (two-times of the design-load of 400 kN). As this pile was used as a construction-pile, this test was
stopped and the breaking-load was not detected. Based on the LCPC (CPT) method an allowable pile
capacity of 500 kN with a settlement of around 20 mm was calculated.
In this area, micro-piles generally have a smaller pile-capacity than vibro-concrete-columns, which is
one reason for selecting the higher bearing-capacity of vibro-concrete-columns due to the high soilcompaction near the pile.
5 SUMMARY
A case study of soil-compaction in coarse-grained-soils with vibro-compaction and vibro-concretecolumns was investigated with CPTs.
With vibro-compaction an increase of the cone-resistance qc of the factor 6 was detected. High qcvalues of 25 MPa for fine gravely-sands and 12 MPa for sands could be reached. Over the construction
area a homogeneous compaction was measured.
Near the vibro-concrete-columns an increase of the cone-resistance qc from 5 MPa to 15 MPa in the
fine gravely-sands and from 2 MPa to 6 MPa in the sands shows a compaction-factor of 3. Surprisingly
the big range of the soil-compaction up to a distance of 2.5 m with a continuous decrease was measured.
6 REFERENCES
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Mohammed M. M., Hashim, R. & Salman, A.F. 2010. Effective improvement depth for ground treated with rapid
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Robertson, P.K. & Cabal, K.L. 2010. Guide to Cone Penetration Testing for Geotechnical Engineering. Signal
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Robertson, P.K. 2010. Soil behaviour type from the CPT: an update. Signal Hill: Gregg Drilling & Testing Inc.
Thompson, P.J., Jansen, J. & Hooks, C.L. 1987. Penetrometer Resistance and Bulk Density as Parameters for
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