Published Article

ABSTRACT Grouting is one of the major soil strengthening methods and it is economical and versatile too. The studies have been conducted around the foundations of low rise reinforced concrete buildings. They are built on problematic soils. A cement grout was injected near the columns, and the grouting holes were as much as seven meters deep around the basement level. The injection density was about 10m2/borehole. The study proved that the uniaxial compressive strength and Young’s modulus of the tested soils was remarkably improved. However, grouting caused a slight increase in the unit weight of the soils in the cases. Similarly, there was not a significant relationship between grouting pressure and the physical properties of grouted soil. Thin sections of the core samples were visualised under polarized light from crossed nicol prisms, which illustrated that soil has been replaced by cement and that the amount of voids is highly noticeable, which may explain why the unit weight was not considerably increased. Grouting caused soil replacement rather than soil densification in the silty sands and clayey sands. The practice has considerably increased uniaxial compressive strength and bearing capacity of the tested soils. It can be employed to form tough soils when foundations of existing buildings need strengthening. Keywords: Soil strengthening, grouting, shallow foundation and Turkey