BAUER

Soil Improvement
BAUER Soil Improvement
a fast and economic solution

2 BAUER Soil Improvement

 I
n the 1960s Bauer started per-
forming ground improvement.
The first vibrator for vibrocom-
paction was created in 1962
under the supervision of Dr.-Ing.
Karlheinz Bauer. In areas where
the subsoil has an insufficient
bearing capacity, vibrocompac-
tion or vibroreplacement can
be a faster and cost efficient
solution in comparison to deep
foundations. Soil improvement is
often used for land reclamation
projects as well as oil and gas or
infrastructure projects.

BAUER Soil Improvement 3

 More than 45 years
experience
Some of our highlight projects:
1962 Development and construction of the first Bauer vibrator for
vibrocompaction, based on a hydraulic driven engine

1971 Collini-Center, Mannheim, Germany

Vibrocompaction up to a depth of 12 m

1975 Las Palmas, Grand Canary

Vibrocompaction of 250,000 m³ of the so called “Picon” material
(a volcanic slag)

1978 Thuwal, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Vibrocompaction with 160,000 lin.m for a new harbor construction
working from a ponton

1988 Cardiff, United Kingdom

Installation of 24,000 lin.m of stone columns with a length of 9 m to 10 m
for the ring road

1990 Singapore
Securing of dams against settlement and shear failure by installing
230,000 lin.m of stone columns

1995 Vancouver, Canada

Delta Port, vibrocompaction of 1.5 Mio. m³ of fill, working from a ponton to
a depth of approximately 31 m

1999 Schleuse Hohenwarte, Germany

28,000 lin.m of vibrocompaction up to a depth of 30 m

2004 Palm Jumeirah, Dubai, UAE

Soil improvement of the crown, 500,000 m² vibrocompaction

2005 Peribonka Dam, Canada

Vibrocompaction of 700,000 m³ of the fills and partially the river
deposits at the main dam base up to a depth of 35 m

2009 Cleveland Clinic, Al Sowah Island, Abu Dhabi, UAE

Vibrocompaction of 90,000 m² to a depth of approximately 10 m

2012 Davao City, Philippines

Vibrocompaction of 100,000 lin.m up to a depth of 18 m

Ocean Reef Island, Panama

Vibrocompaction of 100,000 m² up to a depth of 15 m
 General
S
oil improvement is a special foun- planned construction. In addition, Bauer offers two different techniques:
dation technique to improve the a mitigation of earthquake induced
soil characteristics such as the liquefaction can be obtained. In com- • Vibrodisplacement to install stone
relative density or Young’s modulus parison to piles or barrettes (which de- columns and
of elasticity. The technique is required scribe columnar elements that transfer • Vibrocompaction also known as
in cases where the bearing capacity loads), the subsoil will be considered vibroflotation
of the subsoil is not adequate for the as an improved soil continuum.

Clay Silt Sand Gravel Stone

100%

90%
Values of P (%), by Weight

80%

70% Vibrodisplacement

60%

50%
Vibrocompaction

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%
0.001 0.01 0.1 1 10 100
Particle Size (mm)
The table shows which ground conditions suit vibrocompaction and which suit vibrodisplacement (stone columns)

Vibrocompaction
Applicable in non-cohesive soil with a During the movement of the vibrator with the result that the void ratio of the
maximum fine content of 10 % such the solid part of the matrix will be matrix decreases.
as sands or gravels. floated and afterwards compacted,

Vibro Compaction

Matrix Flotation Matrix

(loose material) (dense material)

Vibroreplacement
Applicable in mixed grained or cohe- strength values ranging from 20 to coarse grained backfill material (stone
sive soils, such as sandy silts to fine- 100 kN/m² by assembling compacted aggregates).
grained soils with undrained shear

BAUER Soil Improvement 5

 Why Soil Improvement?
D
uring the planning stage of
a construction project, a soil
investigation is usually carried
out at the proposed site by a geo-
technical specialist who assesses the
bearing capacity of the subsoil and
Advantages of Soil Improvement
• No excavation material, there-
fore no cost impact resulting
from transportation and no
dealing with contaminated soils.
• Simple foundation conditions,
similar to natural subsoils with
an adequate bearing capacity.
The technique is highly adaptable.
In many cases, soil improvement offers an economical and fast method for improving the engineering characteristics of
the prevailing subsoil.
Subsoil with
an adequate
bearing capacity
Different subsoil conditions and possible foundation solutions
recommends possible types of foun-
dation. Normally, the subsoil provides
adequate bearing capacity without
special foundation measures being
required. If the geotechnical specia-
list comes to the conclusion that the
• In general, no groundwater low-
ering required during installation
phase. Therefore no requirements
for permits and no risk to adjacent
buildings.
• Environmentally compatible by
using only natural materials.
Improved subsoil
(by vibrocompaction
or vibroreplacement)
Subsoil with an
adequate bearing
capacity
6 BAUER Soil Improvement
subsoil does not have sufficient bea-
ring capacity, various solutions are
available, such as soil improvement
or deep foundations.
By providing high level technical
supervision and workmanship
throughout the project execution
and understanding the interaction
between subsoil and structure, it is
possible to fulfill the design require-
ments like increasing the bearing
capacity and mitigating liquefac-
tion.
Pile

Vibrocompaction
Granular or weakly cohesive sedi-
ments (fines less than a maximum of
10 %) such as gravel or sand often
have very uneven layer densities in
their natural state. With vibrocom-
paction the relative density can be
increased up to around 80 %. In the
Vibroreplacement
Using vibroreplacement technique,
the added material is transported
directly to the vibrator tip (bottom
feed method), compacted by multiple
displacement stages and pressed into
BAUER Soil Improvement
Techniques
process, the soil is „floated“ by a wa-
ter or air flush, the vibrator sinks and
a settlement depression is formed
at surface level. This is filled with
additional material. By extracting the
vibrator in stages, a compacted zone
2-4 m diameter is created.
the surrounding soil. This creates a
crushed rock or gravel column which
improves the surrounding soil due to
the higher rigidity of the additional
installed material. The selection of
7
The upper meters of subsoil cannot
be compacted effectively by the vibro-
compaction technique only. These
areas must be compacted by surface
compaction techniques like rollers or
similar.
the most suitable technique depends
primarily on the ground conditions, the
loads to be carried and the boundary
conditions.

R
egarding vibrocompaction we
investigate the “improved” soil
by field tests such as CPTu or
SPT. In case of vibroreplacement we
estimate the soil conditions of the
Design
improved layers by using the theory
of Priebe, which is common prac-
tice all over the world. The following
diagram (Priebe, 1995) gives you an
impression of how to assess the so-
called improvement factor by a given
friction angle of the stone column
(φs), the area ratio and an assumed
Poisson’s ratio of the soil (μB).

5
φs = 45,0°
Improvement Factor n

φs = 42,5° μB = 1/3
4
φs = 40,0°
φs = 37,5°
3
φs = 35,0°

1
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Area Ratio A/Ac

As an alternative for the assessment

of the settlement it might be reason-
able to use FE-Applications. The
results can give you a better impres-
sion of the behaviour of the stone
column in different layers. Through
FE-Calculations you can also assess
the bulking effect in soft layers.

8 BAUER Soil Improvement


T
he execution of the so-called
Cone Penetration Tests (CPT)
is the most common practice to
Testing
investigate the success of soil im- example the cone resistance against
provement, especially for vibrocompac- depth and friction ratio.
tion. The resulting graphs display for

Cone Resistance qc [MPa]

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
0

10
Depth [m]

15

20

25

The graphs of a CPT can be used to
evaluate for example the soil type
and the Young’s modulus. In addition,
it is possible to assess the liquefac-
tion mitigation due to soil improve-
ment works. To prove the success
of a soil improvement by vibrore-
placement, a zone load test can be
executed. In this case for example, a
concrete plate will be manufactured,
set in place to cover a number of stone
columns and loaded in stages (dead
load test) or as an alternative you can
use a kentledge test. The settlement
during the different load stages will
be recorded, so you receive the load
settlement behaviour of the improved
soil.

Concrete block (kentledge)

Beam

Load cell
Hydraulic jack Kentledge support
Load dispatcher (e.g. timber mat)

Reference beam
Dial gauge extensometers Reinforced concrete test base

BAUER Soil Improvement 9


B
ased on extensive experience
Bauer uses methods, equipment
and techniques which allow safe
execution of soil improvement pro-
jects. All process-specific production
data are monitored and displayed on
the B-Tronic monitor inside the ope-
rator cabin for quality purposes. Elec-
tronic data acquisition of all relevant
Quality
production data for documentation
purposes is also carried out by the
B-Tronic system.
By deploying our professional employ-
ees on all our projects, Bauer guaran-
tees the quality of the soil improvement
works. Documentation and quality
management happens in accordance
to the rules of DIN EN ISO 9001.

Equipment
TR 75/TR 85
170

TR 17
700

Head piece
R9

with 2“ flushing
155
0

connection
696
7000

5850

Follower pipe
7000

5850

18850
29070

10000

Ø300
3000

Ø406
Joint
945

(Isolator)
1200

2232

Poker with wear

shield and flush
holes
3001

Ø320
[115]

580

900

The horizontal centrifugal forces of
the deep vibrator are generated by
a hydraulic motor and an oscillator
inside the vibrator section. When de-
ploying deep vibrators in conjunction
with customized Bauer base ma-
chines, the required hydraulic power
can be provided by the base machine
itself (BG, BF or MC) or by a separate
hydraulic power pack, for example
the HD 460. Bauer uses two different
vibrator types, the TR 17 and the
TR 75/TR 85. The TR 17 can reach a
penetration depth of up to 25 m and
the TR 75/TR 85 up to 45 m.

10 BAUER Soil Improvement

 Projects Worldwide
Palm Jumeirah,
Dubai, UAE
For the „Palm“ the Emirate of Dubai builts a
7,000,000 m² artificial island off Jumeirah Beach
to house hotels and luxury villas. Most of the area
was compacted by 17 Bauer deep vibrators.

Port of Balboa, Panama

In the port of Balboa on the pacific coast of Pa-
nama, Bauer Fundaciones Panama compacted
some 15 hectare of newly reclaimed land down
to a depth of 22 m. The improved ground is being
utilized to extend the second largest container
terminal in Latin America and will in future be ca-
pable of withstanding all kinds of loads that such
use demands.

Cleveland Clinic,
Abu Dhabi, UAE
In Abu Dhabi, on Al Sowah Island, the 90,000 m²
Cleveland Clinic is under construction. Bauer
deployed as many as ten TR 85 deep vibrators
when carrying out vibroflotation densification to
provide ground improvement of the 10 m thick
alluvial sand layer.

Highend I to III,
Schindellegi, Switzerland
In Schindellegi, Highend I to III, a housing estate
at the hillside was constructed. For the necessary
ground improvement 12,800 lin.m vibroreplace-
ment (stone columns) were installed, comprising
of 1,117 columns with a length of up to 12 m.

BAUER Soil Improvement 11

BAUER Spezialtiefbau GmbH
BAUER - Strasse 1
86529 Schrobenhausen, Germany
Tel.: + 49 8252 97- 0
Fax: + 49 8252 97-1496
BST@bauer.de
www.bauer.de

http://www.bauer.de/en/bst/
5/2014
905.026.2

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