Geopier Soil Reinforcement System – Case Histories of High Bearing Capacity Footing Support and Floor Slab Support

The Geopier® Rammed Aggregate Pier system is an innovative ground improvement method developed in the 1980’s that has grown in the United States and more recently in Asia and Europe, for supporting lightly to heavily loaded structures and highway and railroad embankments. The system is unique because it prestresses and prestrains adjacent matrix soils during installation of rammed aggregate piers. It has been successfully used on hundreds of project sites to support building foundations, floor slabs, storage tanks, and roadway embankments founded on both, poor and unsuitable soils as well as fair to good soils. The rammed aggregate pier system controls settlements effectively by reinforcing soils below structures and thus improving bearing capacities and allowable bearing pressures while controlling settlements. Two case histories of specialized applications are presented in this paper: (1) Wind tower projects in Germany, where the Geopier system provides high bearing capacity and overturning moment resistances to support the foundations in soft soils; and (2) Rammed Aggregate Pier soil reinforcement support of foundations and large area floor slab system for a commercial warehouse facility in the Philippines. This paper is of particular significance because it presents case histories of a relatively new soil improvement system tailored to increase foundation bearing capacities for dynamic footing loadings and provide positive settlement control for wide area loads including floor slabs. Design and implementation of the Geopier system are presented. Evaluations of the behavior of Geopier elements based on stiffness modulus test data and an analytical approach to compare modulus test results to the design assumptions are also discussed

Geotechnisches Verhalten mineralischer Deponieabdichtungsschichten bei ungleichfoermiger Verformungseinwirkung

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