info:eu-repo/semantics/masterThesis
Modeling Liquefiable Soil Improvement By Air Injection
Autor
Sepulveda Cano, Sebastian
Institución
Resumen
ABSTRACT: Soil improvement techniques are needed when dealing with sandy, saturated soils susceptible to liquefaction and flow. However, when large areas of soil must be improved, government and private entities limit the use of these techniques because, in the majority of cases, they are too expensive and unaffordable. Therefore, there is a need for inexpensive and reliable emerging methods to improve liquefaction susceptible soils at a reasonable cost.
Among the scientific community, it has been discussed the opportunity and efficacy of using of partial induction of the saturation degree as a method for improving liquefiable soils. One technique to desaturate the soil is by injecting gas bubbles into the soil structure. One of the main concerns of this technique is that the research community has some skepticism on whether or not the injected gas bubbles can remain trapped and stay long enough in the soil voids without dissolving into the groundwater.
Academic interest on this topic is widespread, and resources have been invested in the study of desaturation as a soil improvement technique. As a result, different techniques for introducing gas bubbles into the soil structure have been proposed and tested. Among these techniques are: a) soil desaturation by air injection, b) water electrolysis, c) the implementation of chemicals, for example, the sodium perborate, d) compacted sand piles and e) the application of microbiological methods, for example, the microbial denitrification. The objective of this research is to study and focuses on the desaturation by injection, initially proposed by Okamura Mitsu. Understanding that there is the possibility of implementing the air injection as a method of liquefiable soil improvement. Moreover, considering that air infiltration in saturated soils and partially desaturation generation are complicated processes, the study of the methods of air infiltration into the soil is made necessary by coupled methodologies of injection-infiltration that reflect variations of state variables over time. Additionally, numerically examination will be developed to study the changes of the non-wetting phase and the wetting phase saturation degree of the soil improved by air injection since this parameter is critical in liquefaction studies and minor variations thereof will have significant effects on the soil resistance to liquefaction. A parametric analysis will be done, containing the most important hydraulic features that regulate the behavior of partially saturated soils (characteristic soil-water and permeability function), injectability of air in the soil, pressures required during injection, injection duration and desaturation radio. In this Study, the material parameters that actively control soil desaturation process by injecting air will be defined.
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