For any construction project, ground improvement is essential. The soil of that particular area needs to be hardened before starting any construction work on it. There are many techniques available for ground improvement and for improving the hardness of soil and soil bearing capacity.
Vibro-compaction is one of the effective methods for improving the density of granular soil with fine contents and suitable gradation. The vibrator used in this process, reduces inter-granular forces amongst soil particles and thus, achieving density of relatively 70 to 85 percent.
However, there are several steps involved in the improvement of ground. Firstly, you have to fill the spaces between the soil particles, so that, they can solidify. After this, you can easily reduce the size of foundation. Besides, it permits construction of building on granular fills. Vibro-compaction depends on the type of ground and its relative density.
Equipments used in this process are crane-mounted, excavator and rig-mounted that can dig for about 50 feet. Thus, you can compact sands to the depth of 70 meters. Moreover, the danger of physical change in earthquake area is drastically reduced.
This compaction process includes a vibrator, which allows rearrangement of particles into denser state. There are various benefits of vibro-compaction such as gravel and sand particles rearrange into a denser state. The permeability of soil reduces from 2 to 10 folds, depending on the situation and stiffness.
However, on large scaled projects, civil contractors conduct the vibro-compaction technique. Moreover, the depth and position to be compacted also depend on the contractors’ decision. With the help of this method, you can perform several tests such as standard penetration, cone penetrometer, dilatometer and load test in the soil. Thus, vibro-compaction plays an important role in improving the density of soil and allowing effective ground improvement.
For more information, visit subsurfaceconstructors.com. They offer information on ground improvement, including how to aggregate piers. If you're looking for ground improvement, check out one of our links above.
