Visualization of settlement behavior for friction pile group during consolidation

Combined technology by using surface stabilization and floating type deep mixing soil stabilization has been developed as a method with acceptable settlement for maintaining the proper functioning of superstructures on deep soft soil layers. In this study, in order to apply for the practice of this ground improvement technique, settlement properties and skin friction were investigated by using two types of model tests and full scale FEM analysis in the consolidation process. For applying the image analysis to the model test, it was clarified that vertical strain of soft clay in the upper part of the improved portion was restrained by transferring the load to the deep soft soil layer. Further, from the analytic results, it was also found that full mobilization length of skin friction increased with elapsed time and converged to the constant value under the consolidation condition.