Parametric Study on the Effectiveness of Deep-Soil Mixed Soil-Reinforcement Panels on Seismic De-Amplification at Soft Clay Sites

摘要

Soft clay deposits around the world pose several issues including low bearing support, high compressibility and an amplification of earthquake motions. As a result, ground improvement techniques have been implemented in order to improve the engineering properties of these soft soils. Furthermore, if these ground improvement techniques can help to reduce the amplification of seismic waves as they travel through soft soil deposits, the demands placed on infrastructure can also be reduced. In this study, the effectiveness of deep soil mixed panels on reducing the seismic amplification through a soft clay profile is examined with the use of an unidirectional shake table. The influence of replacement ratio of these panels is evaluated by preparing three models representing replacement of 0%, 10% and 20% of the plan area of the unimproved soil. Similar models were also prepared with compacted soil-cement panels and used for comparison. The amplification of the seismic waves was found to reduce as the replacement ratio of the deep soil mixed panels increased. Relationships between the replacement ratio and reduction in seismic amplification are presented in this paper.