The 3rd International Conference on Earthquake Engineering and Disaster Mitigation 2016 (ICEEDM-III 2016)

Advanced design of sand compaction pile as the liquefaction mitigation

Mitsuo Nozua, Naotoshi Shinkawaa, Tooru Inoueb
a
Manager in Technical Section, Fudo Tetra Corporation, 7-2 Nihonbashi Koami cho, Tokyo, Japan
b
Chief Representative, Jakarta Rep. Office, Fudo Tetra Corporation, Bakrie Tower 3rd floor Unit-I, JL.HR.Rasuna Said, Kuningan, Jakarta, 12940, Indonesia

Abstract
Sand Compaction Pile (SCP) method has been widely used to mitigate liquefaction in Japan since 1950’s and had great
effects even though huge earthquakes have attacked so far. In particular, although at the Tohoku earthquake in 2011
serious settlement damages have been observed in Urayasu city, all the buildings were perfectly protected in the SCP
improved area [1]. It creates compacted and expanded sand piles in the ground by using ‘Bottom feed sand supply
system’ with up-and-down sequence together with the aid of compressed air. According to the recent research program,
unsaturated ground condition has been confirmed by the frozen soil samples from SCP improved ground that have been
extracted 27 years after the SCP work [2],[3]. The compressed air that had been ejected during SCP operation has
remained into the void between soil particles and not dissipated even such long periods. And this unsaturated condition
of the ground increases resistance against liquefaction significantly and consequently prevents serious ground settlement
during seismic event. In this report, by utilizing this unique effect, new SCP design procedure is proposed to reduce the
improvement ratio without compromising liquefaction mitigation effect.
Keywords: Sand Compaction Pile, Densification, Liquefaction mitigation, Loose sandy ground, Unsaturated soil condition

1. INTRODUCTION

The typical procedure of SCP installation is shown in Figure 1. At the stage 4 when the casing pipe is withdrawn upward,
compressed air is used to discharge the infilling sand into the ground. At that time, the leaked air is put into the
surrounding ground. In this report, first the records of unsaturation in the ground due to SCP installation are introduced.
Then new design procedure is proposed and used for the trial calculation.

2. CASE HISTORIES OF UNSATURATED CONDITION AT IMPROVED GROUND BY SCP

Public works research institute (PWRI) in Japan has started soil investigation and extraction of subsurface soil samples
with accurate frozen sampling and performed saturation degree test of the samples at more than 10 SCP improved sites
since 2002 (Figure.2), and reported that even 27 years after the SCP installation, unsaturated condition of the ground is
still remained. [2],[3],[4],[5]
 Fig.1. Work Sequence of Sand Compaction Pile

(a) SPT data before SCP improvement (b) Air injection into the sand layer

(c) Frozen Sampling location (d) Results of unsaturated condition

Fig.2. Results of unsaturated condition after SCP installation [2]
Figure 3 and Figure 4 are the test results of P-wave velocity at SCP Improved Ground after 27 years of the work. The Vp
of the SCP improved ground was measured less than 500m/sec that was much lower than that of usual saturated ground
(1500m/sec).

Pre-SCP

Ground Improvement
Area by SCP

Coastal Revetment

Shinano River Sluice

Shinano River

Sekiya Diversion Channel

Fig. 3. P-wave & SPT Test Location

Fig. 4. Test Results at No.1 Test Location

3. NEW DESIGN PROCEDURE OF SCP BY CONSIDERING UNSATURATED CONDITION

3.1 New Design Procedure

Figure 5 shows degree of saturation of samples together with other indexes such as void ratio, fines content and 5%
particle size. There is correlation between fines content and degree of saturation as the red curve on the graph which was
made by authors. This correlation is summarized in Table 1.

(a) Degree of saturation and soil parameters relationship shortly after SCP installation

(b) Degree of saturation and soil parameters relationship 26 years after SCP installation
Fig. 5. Soil profile and saturation degree at SCP improved ground [5] (Red line is making by authors)

Table 1. Fine content (Fc) and Degree of Saturation (Sr)

Fc (%) Sr (%)
0 93.0
5 96.0
10 97.5
15 99.0
>20 100.0
Figure 6 is the results of laboratory testing by Okamura et al. [6]. This graph shows the increase of liquefaction strength
with unsaturated condition. Accordingly, the increase rate of liquefaction resistance (LRR) can be estimated by the
degree of saturation with the following equation [7].

 v Sr e
v 
*
(1  ) (1)
 100 1  e
P0   v
R
LRR   log( 6500 v  10)
*
(2)
RSr100%

Where, v*: potential volumetric strain, Sr : degree of saturation, P0: absolute pressure of the fluid, e: void ratio, LRR:
increase rate of liquefaction resistance = Rscp: it defines the Unsaturation factor.

Fig. 6. Increase Rate of Liquefaction Resistance by Degree of Saturation (Okamura, et. al.[6])

By considering the increase rate of liquefaction resistance, the following new design flow (Figure 7) to mitigate
liquefaction of the ground by using SCP is proposed. This new design is expected to realize more economical design of
SCP such as smaller diameter of sand/stone piles and wider spacing between piles.

(1) Estimate Degree of saturation from Soil profile

(2) Estimate increase rate of liquefaction resistance

from estimated Degree of saturation

Figure-4
(3) Use the increased New SCP
liquefaction Design Flow
resistance
(LRR=Rscp) at usual SCP design

Fig. 7. New SCP Design Flow

3.2 Trial design calculation

By using the new design procedure as shown in Figure 5, the trial design calculation based on the following conditions
have been conducted:
(1) PGA=0.31
(2) Underground water level: GL.-1.0m
(3) Fines content of soil to be treated: Fc=5% ,10%,15%
(4) Thickness of liquefiable layer: 15m
(5) SPT N-Value of liquefiable layer: 3-7

According to the calculation, the required improvement ratios by SCP in the case of both considering and not considering
unsaturated condition are presented in Table-2. Significant decrease of improvement ratio such as 0.75 to 0.90 were
achieved by considering unsaturated condition.

Table 2. Required Improvement Ratio by SCP

Not Considering Considering Unsaturated Cost Saving
Fc (%) Unsaturated condition condition Rate
5 16.0% 12.0% 0.75
10 18.5% 15.5% 0.84
15 20.5% 18.5% 0.90

4. VERIFICATION PROCEDURE OF UNSATURATED CONDITION

For the verification of the unsaturated condition, the P-wave velocity test together with SPT (or CPT) is possible to be
applied and it might be cost effective. In general, P-wave velocity of saturated ground should be approximately
1500m/sec; however, after compressed air is injected into the ground, the velocity is significantly reduced to less than
1000m/sec, but still the data has wide variation (Figure 8). Therefore, in practice the proper engineering judgement at
each P-wave testing is indispensable.

Fig. 8. Sr (Saturation degree) and Vp (Velocity of P-wave) relationship [7]

5. CONCLUSION

In this paper, new design procedure of liquefaction mitigation by SCP (Sand Compaction Pile) was proposed to optimize
the cost and time. These kind of efforts has been performed so far and it must be continued [8].
Although the new design procedure realizes drastic reduction of improvement ratio by SCP, the maximum spacing
between each sand piles should be carefully considered according to the past experiences.

REFERENCES

[1] Kinoshita, H, Nozu, M, Obayashi, J, and Harada, K, 2012, Sand Compaction Pile technology and its performance
for both sandy and clayey ground, TC211 IS-GI Brussels, ISSMGE.
[2] Okamura et.al, 2003, Liquefaction resistance of sand deposited improved with sand compaction piles, Soils and
Foundations, Vol. 43, No.5, 175-187, Japanese Geotechnical Society
[3] Okamura, M, Ishihara, M, Tamura, K: Degree of saturation of sand improved with SCP 27 years ago, Proceedings
of JGS annual symposium, 2003
[4] Okamura et.al, On liquefaction resistance and degree of saturation of sand improved with SCP, Proceedings of 38th
JGS annual symposium, 2003.
[5] Okamura, M, Ishihara, M, Tamura K, 2004, Investigation of saturation degree at SCP improved ground,
Proceedings of 39th JGS annual symposium (in Japanese).
[6] Okamura, M, Noguchi, K: Liquefaction Resistances of Unsaturated Non-Plastic Silt, Soils and Foundations, Vol.49,
No.2, 221-229, Japanese Geotechnical Society, 2009.
[7] Air-Des research association manual, 2015
[8] Harada, K, Nozu, M, Matsushita, K, and Sakakibara, M, 2015, Consideration on Liquefaction Resistance of Ground
Improvement by the Sand Compaction Pile Method, DFI Annual Conference