Ground Improvement (1998) 2, 81±92 81

State of the art in deep mixing technology: part I.

Basic concepts and overview
A. PORBAHA
Technical Research Institute, TOA Corporation, 1-3 Anzen-cho, Tsurumi-ku, Yokohama
239, Japan (formerly Science and Technology Agency, Port and Harbour Research Institute,
Japan)

Today's competitive construction industry is highly depen- Le secteur compeÂtitif actuel du baÃtiment est fortement
dent on effective use of existing and innovative technolo- tributaire d'une utilisation ef®cace de technologies exis-
gies. In many situations the key issue is not how to break tantes et novatrices. Dans de nombreuses situations, la
through technological barriers but how to put existing question de base n'est pas de savoir comment percer les
concepts to the best possible use. Whereas the basic dif®culteÂs technologiques, mais plutoÃt comment peut-on
knowledge behind many developed techniques can be appliquer le mieux possible des concepts actuels. Bien que
found in engineering textbooks, the complex issues related les connaissances de base dont deÂcoulent de nombreuses
to know-how of analysis and design, construction techni- techniques qui ont eÂte creÂeÂes sont fournies dans les
ques, and quality monitoring, developed based on regional manuels techniques, les questions complexes relatives aux
experiences, have not been widely available to engineers connaissances techniques dans l'analyse et la conception,
working in different countries. In a series of papers, the aux techniques de construction et au controÃle de la qualiteÂ,
aim is to examine issues, concepts, and the latest advance- deÂveloppeÂes sur la base d'expeÂriences reÂgionales, n'ont
ments in research and development of deep soil mixing pas divulgueÂes suf®samment aux ingeÂnieurs travaillant
technology. The focus is on presenting basic concepts, dans les diffeÂrents pays. Dans une seÂrie d'articles, on
various application areas, considerations for analysis and s'efforce d'examiner des questions, des concepts ainsi que
design, construction techniques, methods of quality con- les deÂcouvertes les plus reÂcentes dans l'eÂtude et la
trol, and so on. A large number of case histories of deep recherche dans la technologie sur le meÂlange des sols en
mixing projects, applied in different countries, are col- profondeur. L'accent est mis sur la preÂsentation de con-
lected to portray various functions of deep mixing; along cepts de base, diffeÂrents domaines d'application, des
with references to exemplify the current practice and the consideÂrations pour l'analyse et l'eÂtude, des techniques de
present understanding of the technology. This ®rst paper construction, des meÂthodes de controÃle de la qualite et
emphasizes basic concepts, de®nitions, classi®cations, and ainsi de suite. De nombreuses eÂtudes de cas portant sur
historical developments related to deep mixing technology des projets de meÂlange en profondeur dans diffeÂrents pays
around the world. ont eÂte recueillies pour illustrer diffeÂrentes fonctions du
meÂlange en profondeur, ainsi que des reÂfeÂrences pour
illustrer les pratiques actuelles et le niveau actuel de
connaissances dans cette technologie. Le premier article
met l'accent sur les principes de base, les de®nitions, les
classi®cations et les deÂveloppements historiques en ma-
Keywords : Deep soil mixing; embankments; founda- tieÁre de technologie du meÂlange en profondeur dans le
tions; state of the art review monde entier.

Introduction tion of numerous megaprojects on soft deposits in port and

harbour areas is indispensable for the development and
The increasing growth in the infrastructure of urban and restoration of infrastructure in the region.
metropolitan areas in most countries of the world has The remedial solution to overcome the construction
resulted in dramatic rises in land prices. Accordingly, areas dif®culties on poor quality ground is either to improve the
and properties with poor soil conditions are becoming more compressible soils or to install deep foundations. Foundation
attractive for development. This dilemma is most severe for techniques such as the various ground improvement meth-
the South-East Asian countries where the economy is ods are usually more cost-effective compared with deep
hitched to the export±import cycle. As a result, the construc- foundations such as driven piles, bored piles or drilled piers.
One method of soil improvement is deep mixing (DM),
which is categorized as a solidi®cation technique.
(GI 041) Paper received 2 December 1997; last revised 3 March 1998; Actual research work on deep mixing (as is discussed
accepted 5 March 1998 later) was initiated about three decades ago, in Japan by the

1365-781X # 1998 Thomas Telford Ltd

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 A. Porbaha

Port and Harbour Research Institute (PHRI), and in Sweden The term soft ground mainly refers to cohesive soil
by the Swedish Geotechnical Institute. Since then extensive deposits with high moisture contents and saturated ®ne
research has been conducted to gain insight into different granular deposits in a loose state. More speci®cally, soft
aspects of DM, and to characterize the geomaterial through ground has high compressibility and low strength, and may
laboratory tests and ®eld observations. Material related to fall within the following categories of soil deposits with:
DM technology has generally been sparsely published in the
· high plasticity, such as fat clay
technical reports of research institutes, which are not
· high fraction of ®nes, such as silt
accessible to engineers working in different countries due to
· high moisture content, such as peat
limited distribution. For instance, in early 1995 a team of
· high void ratio, such as loose sand deposits.
leading US consulting and contracting ®rms came to the
PHRI to examine the applicability of deep mixing techno- These soils have different intrinsic properties and therefore
logy for a large-scale project in the USA. need different ground modi®cation techniques.
In a series of papers the objective is to present the latest
advancements in research and development related to deep
mixing technology. The focus is on presenting basic con- Principles of soil improvement
cepts, various application areas and case histories, consid-
erations for analysis and design, construction techniques,
techniques
methods of quality control, and so on. Soil improvement is any countermeasure applied to soft
The material in these papers is derived from many soil to enhance the performance of the ground in terms of
sources, including published and unpublished technical increasing strength, decreasing permeability or controlling
research reports (in Japanese or in English), international deformation. The basic concepts of soil improvement, that is,
and regional conference proceedings, interviews with profes- densi®cation, solidi®cation, dewatering, reinforcement, and
sionals in the ®eld, review of numerous publications by modi®cation by changing temperature, were developed a
engineering ®rms for case histories, and personal visits to long time ago and are still valid (Mitchell, 1981). During the
project sites. last three decades, however, a large number of techniques
Reportedly, there is growing interest in the use of DM have been developed and applied to dif®cult soils, and it is
technology in Europe, Asian countries, and the USA. There- expected that new ground improvement techniques will
fore, there is a need to bridge the technical information gap continue to be developed.
by integrating research ®ndings with ®eld experiences. This The role of ground improvement is to search for safe,
is the rationale for initiating these papers. Such a technology cost-effective and, sometimes, quick operational techniques
transfer tool will ultimately serve as a guide for profes- to accomplish the required purposes of construction.
sionals to allow them to take advantage of the latest devel- Hence, it is not surprising that throughout the world soil
opments in the area of DM. improvement techniques are of growing importance in the
solution of more and more complicated foundation pro-
blems. Therefore, understanding the principles of various
What is soft ground? soil modi®cation techniques is indispensable for engineers
to apply the most appropriate and cost-effective tech-
Soft soil deposits are abundant throughout the world. In nique.
Japan and South-East Asian countries, ports and harbours
are underlain with soft soil deposits. Figure 1 shows repre-
sentative sections of soil pro®les found in major harbours in
Japan. Deep mixing method
DM has two major aspects of `in situ stabilization' and `in
Tokyo Yokohama Nagoya Osaka Hiroshima situ ®xation'. In a broad perspective, it is a soil modi®cation
60
technique in which the soil is mixed in situ with cementi-
tious (such as cement, lime, ¯y ash, etc.), chemical or even
biological reagentsÐin the form of slurry or powderÐto
improve the engineering and environmental properties of
210 soft or contaminated ground. Specially designed machines
with several shafts equipped with mixing blades and sta-
bilizer injection nozzles are used to construct in situ treated
soil columns in various patterns and con®gurations (as
220 discussed later). The reactions that take place between the
soil and the stabilizing agent increases the strength and
Depth: m

reduces the permeability and leaching potential of the

ground.
230 In situ ®xation implies soil and groundwater treatment in
place without excavation, shoring or dewatering. Recent
advances in soil mixing technology include ®xation of
waste-contaminated soils, and removing volatile organic
240
compounds in conjunction with hot air injection and vapour
Sand
Silt
extraction technology. Contaminants are ®rst chemically
Clay stabilized and then contained within a solidi®ed mass. This
250
Gravel prevents leaching of contaminants while improving the
engineering properties of the ground. The technique can be
Fig. 1. Pro®le of representative soil sections from major harbours of Japan used for both inorganic and organic contaminants.

82

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 State of the art in deep mixing technology

Terminology of the DM family of DM, and thereby enhance the reliability of the technique.
Fig. 2 compares the performance of DM with different soil
Since its ®rst practical use, different names have been improvement techniques in terms of reliability, cost-effective-
used for deep mixing technology. Some of these terms are ness, and environmental friendliness (Ando et al., 1995).
listed here:
· DCM: deep chemical mixing
Variety of applications
· CDM: cement deep mixing
· DMM: deep mixing method A large number of reported case histories in the literature
· CMC: clay mixing consolidation method represent the wide spectrum of application areas of DM
· CCP: chemical churning pile technology, as will be discussed in the second article in this
· DCCM: deep cement continuous method series. Recently, attention has focused on applications
· DJM: dry jet mixing associated with environmental geotechnology. With the costs
· DLM: deep lime mixing of environmental remedial work soaring, engineers have
· SWING: spreadable WING method been looking for more economical methods to solve pollu-
· RM: rectangular mixing method tion problems. Jasperse and Ryan (1992) reported case
· JACSMAN: jet and churning system management histories in which soil mixing offered a proven and cost-
· DeMIC: deep mixing improvement by cement stabilizer effective method for stabilizing or ®xating contaminated
· Mixed-in-place piles soils and sludges.
· In situ soil mixing
· Lime±cement columns
Effective use of resources
· Soil±cement columns
· SMW: soil mix wall For the stone column or sand compaction method a large
· DSM: deep soil mixing. volume of granular soil must necessarily be imported to the
site. When granular soil is not locally available, the cost of
Although there are some differences in the stabilizing agent transportation, particularly in areas with remote access, will
and installation process of these techniques, all of them have add an extra component to the total expenditure of a project.
the same basic principle and belong to the DM family. The DM method solidi®es the soil in situ and does not
Obviously, adopting a consistent terminology would prevent require granular ®ll.
confusion for practitioners in different countries using these
techniques.
Environmental impact
Unlike conventional methods of granular soil improve-
Characteristics of DM ment, such as stone column or sand compaction piles (SCPs),
installation of DM columns creates low noise and vibration
Several advantages of deep soil mixing in comparison to during construction. Fig. 3 compares the relationship between
conventional soil improvement techniques are discussed here. noise level and the distance from the source of noise for
several soil improvement methods including sand compac-
tion pile, gravel drain (GD), as well as DM (Ando et al., 1995).
Speed of construction
Rapid solidi®cation that speeds up the construction pro-
cess is the distinctive feature of deep soil mixing. In some
situations, for instance in congested urban areas, the con- Classi®cation of DM
struction period could be the dominant factor controlling the
whole construction process. The reasons for a time constraint Classi®cation based on geometry of treated
could be (a) to maintain traf®c in service during construction mass
and/or (b) to satisfy certain deadlines unavoidably imposed DM is executed in several patterns depending upon the
by the contract. By applying a solidifying reagent that type of structure and its loading, site and subsurface condi-
eliminates the time for consolidation settlement, the DM tions, and purposes of the improvement. In practice, DM is
method provides a signi®cant reduction in the execution
period of the project. A representative example is the con- SCP: sand compaction pile method
struction of the complex Central Artery/Tunnel Project in Environment friendliness GD: gravel drain method
DM: deep mixing method
Boston, in which DM technology was adopted (Neff, 1996). High
GD

Strength calibration DM
GD
The requisite strength of DM is achieved by varying the GCP
ratio of solidifying material, commonly cement, to suit the TOFT

project requirements with consideration of loading, soil type, DM

and desired serviceability. Tatsuoka et al. (1997) reported the

Reliability
design of various soil mixes with different strength character- mini-SCP GD
DM SCP
istics for the Trans-Tokyo Bay (TTB) Highway Project in Japan. GD DM High

SCP
High
Reliability SCP
Economy
New advancements in terms of mixing equipment, align-
ment control devices, and integrated systems for real-time Fig. 2. Performance of different soil improvement techniques (Ando et al.,
monitoring during installation enable effective quality control 1995)

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 A. Porbaha

Upper limit at which minor structural

damage begins to occur
120
Mini-SCP method
Conventional SCP method
110 DM method
GD method
100
100 Mini-SCP method
Conventional SCP method
Noise level: dB

90 DM method
GD method
90
Maximum allowable noise: 85 dB
80 Maximum allowable
(Noise Control Law in Japan, 1968)

Vibration level: dB
vibration: 75 dB
80
(standard for vibrations
70 during construction work
under the Vibration Control
70
Law in Japan, 1976)
SCP method 60 SCP method
60
DM method Mini-SCP method
Background 50
noise GD method
Mini-SCP method
50 Background
1 2 5 10 20 50 100 200 500 vibration
Distance from vibration source: m 40
DM method
GD method
(a)
30
1 2 5 10 20 50 100 200 500
Distance from vibration source: m

(b)

Fig. 3. Environmental impact of various ground improvement techniques: (a) noise effect; (b) effect of vibration during construction (Ando et al., 1995)

installed in four different patterns in the form of block, wall, cementing agent, DM may be referred to as lime column
grid, and columns, as shown schematically in Fig. 4. (Broms, 1984), ¯y ash column (Wu et al., 1993), cement
Block type or wall type improvement is used when either column (Borong et al., 1994), and FGC (¯y ash gypsum
(a) the load of the superstructure is markedly highÐas is the cement) improved ground (Asano et al., 1996), in which a
case for marine structuresÐor (b) the structure is sensitive to mixture of ¯y ash, gypsum and cement is used.
any deformation or settlement. However, for land-based Figure 9 shows the distribution of various stabilizing
projects, such as improving embankment stability, control- materials reported by the DJM Association in Japan. How-
ling excavation, and restraining horizontal pressure, column ever, lime stabilizer is more common in Scandinavian
type DM is more preferable due to cost-effectiveness. It countries, although in recent years a mixture of cement and
should be noted that one unit of DM may consist of several lime has had increased attention. Fig. 10 presents the
overlapping columns, depending on the number of shafts distribution of different additives used for deep stabilization
and the con®guration of the DM machines (Fig. 5). in Sweden between 1975 and 1993. Comprehensive research
Whereas wall type and column type DM are more into chemicophysical effects on stabilization of different
commonly used in practice, grid type or lattice type DM has types of soils was reported by the Swedish Geotechnical
been used to mitigate the liquefaction potential of a site. Institute (Ahnberg et al., 1995a).

Classi®cation based on construction technique

The process of mixing the admixture with soil is performed Historical development around the
either mechanically or under high pressure (pressurized mix- world
ing), as illustrated in Figs 6 and 7. In the mechanical mixing
method the stabilizer is statically added to the soil in either Developments in Asia
the dry or slurry condition. However, in the pressurized Since the 1960s Japan has been the leading country in
mixing method, the admixture, water and air are supplied terms of research and development related to different
under a high pressure to fabricate overlapped columns. aspects of DM technology. The initial phase of research and
By combining the power of both jet grouting and mech- development under the leadership of the PHRI, the national
anical mixing, ef®cient and large diameter columns are laboratory of the Ministry of Transport, was to develop deep
produced (Fig. 8). JACSMAN (jet and churning system lime mixing (DLM). A variety of marine clays were collected
management), developed in Japan, is a new large-diameter from different sites and mixed with quick lime as the
DM method that combines the advantages of mechanical hardening agent. The aim was to determine the effective
mixing and jet stirring. GeoJet is the American version based mixing ratios and to con®rm the improvement effect for a
on the same principle. variety of soils (Okumura et al., 1972). The DLM method
was brought into practice throughout Japan and South-East
Asia in 1974. In 1975, the `wet method' of DM using cement
Classi®cation based on stabilizing agent slurry, namely cement deep mixing (CDM), was developed.
The most common cementitious stabilizer for DM is Laboratory tests and ®eld observations continued the
cement; however, other stabilizing agents, such as lime, ¯y progress in the evaluation of the engineering characteristics
ash, and so on, have been used. Cement may also be used in of treated soil, the establishment of design methodology
conjunction with silicates, thermoplastics, and polymers for (Terashi and Tanaka, 1981; Terashi et al., 1983), and the
the treatment of organic contaminants. Based on the type of improvement in execution equipment. The behaviour of

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 State of the art in deep mixing technology

Soft ground
Soft ground

nd Improved ground
grou
Soft Improved ground
Soft ground

Long unit
Short unit
Block type Wall type

Short unit

Long unit
Soft ground
Soft ground

Improved ground
Improved ground
Soft ground
Soft ground

Grid type Column type

Fig. 4. Various patterns of DM

equipment (Nishibayashi, 1985) and on quality control

(Mitsuhashi et al., 1996; Zheng and Shi, 1996).
From the early stages of development, in spite of technical
dif®culties and lack of knowledge of the behaviour of DM,
the Japanese construction industry was determined to con-
tinue employing this technique for several projects to cope
with stability and settlement problems. Consequently, in
1977 a group of about four dozen construction companies
established the CDM Association to coordinate the develop-
ment process through a collaboration of industry and re-
search institutes. The reported data reveal that the output of
CDM more than doubled between 1987 and 1993. A
technical guide, the CDM Manual, serving as the engineering
manual for practitioners was released, and was updated in
1994 (CDM Association of Japan, 1994).
By 1980 the Japanese Ministry of Construction had devel-
Fig. 5. Improved ground by DM oped the dry jet mixing (DJM) method. DJM uses discontin-
uous auger ¯ights and mixing paddles, and powdered
cement or lime as the stabilizer. The state-of-the-art report
stabilized ground was studied through 1 g model tests and, by Chida (1982) describes the details of the technique. In the
later on, at high accelerations induced by geotechnical early 1980s about two dozen contractors established the DJM
centrifuges (Terashi et al., 1985; Suzuki et al., 1988; Kitazume, Association, similar to but smaller than the CDM Associa-
1996). Further investigations were reported on earthquake tion. The number of projects using DJM show an overall
resistance (Inatomi et al., 1984, 1986), on characterization ascending trend, since the technique has gained popularity
of cement-treated ground (Honjo, 1982), on liquefaction steadily since 1990. The updated version of the engineering
(Hirama and Toriihara, 1983; Suzuki et al., 1986), on vibra- guide published by the DJM Association in 1993, the DJM
tion characteristics (Inatomi et al., 1985), on excavation Manual, compiles several case histories (DJM Association of
control (Tanaka, 1993; Matsushita et al., 1993), on mixing Japan, 1993). In Japan, the CDM method is widely applied to

85

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 A. Porbaha

Motor Additives 1 air

Cover against spouting

Additives

Exhaust

Air

Mixing blade

Improved column Improved column

(a)

(b)

Fig. 6. Mechanical mixing method: (a) additives supplied in slurry; (b) dry additives supplied with air

Slime Slime
Single tube,
∅ 40 mm

Casing rod
High-pressure
grout, 20 MPa
Triple tube,
Compressed air, Double tube, ∅ 90 mm
700 kPa ∅ 60 mm
High-pressure Compressed
grout, 20 MPa air, 70 kPa
High-pressure
High-pressure
grout, 2 MPa
Improved column water, 40 MPa

(a)

Improved column

(b)
Improved column

(c)

Fig. 7. Pressurized mixing method: (a) mixing by pressurized grout; (b) mixing by pressurized grout and compressed air; (c) mixing by pressurized grout,
compressed air and pressurized water

marine works as well as land sites; however, the DJM According to the statistics published by the CDM Associa-
method can be used only on land-based project sites. tion of Japan, between 1977 and 1993 the volume of soil
In parallel to the PHRI, numerous technical research improved by DM in Japan was approximately 23´6 million
institutes, af®liated with construction companies, pursued m3 for both sea and land projects (Fig. 12). The status of
independent research on various aspects of DM technology. DJM execution published by the DJM Association of Japan
For instance, the research theme of the Takenaka Research between 1981 and 1995 is shown in Fig. 13. In recent years,
Institute was characterization of cement-treated soil and the the number of projects in Japan that use DM is about 300
engineering properties of improved ground (Niina et al., 1981; per year. Fig. 14 shows the breakdown of various projects
Kawasaki et al., 1981; Saitoh et al., 1982; Suzuki et al., 1986). for both land and marine cases.
In terms of mixing technique, research also continued into The Engineering News Record (ENR) frequently used to
grout-injection DM methods, and the development of a wide publish the achievements of DM in Japan for underwater
variety of large-diameter columns (Yoshida, 1996), different foundation (ENR, 1983), for earthquake protection (ENR,
geometries, such as rectangular DM, as shown in Fig. 11 1989) and for retaining walls (ENR, 1986). Every year in the
(Watanabe and Nishimura, 1992), and different stabilizing annual national conference sponsored by the Japanese
materials (Asano et al., 1996) based on the same principle. Geotechnical Society the latest progress is published. In
All of these techniques are derivatives of the DM family. 1996, the second conference on ground improvement geo-

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 State of the art in deep mixing technology

100

80

Percentage of total use

60

Lime

40
Cement–lime

20

Fig. 8. Improved ground by JACSMAN Cement

0
75 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93
systems was held in Japan (IS-Tokyo 96), in which many Year
new achievements in grouting and deep mixing were
presented. Fig. 10. Distribution of stabilizers used in Sweden between 1975 and 1993
In China, formal research started in the late 1970s, even (Ahnberg et al., 1995b)
though from the late 1960s Chinese engineers studied the
deep lime mixing method and CDM developments in Japan.
The ®rst set of land-based equipment appeared in 1978 and
was immediately used for the foundations of an industrial
facility at Shanghai. The total volume of Chinese soil treated
since by DM is in excess of 1 million m3 .
Between 1987 and 1990, DM was used for Tianjin Port in
which two new wharves were constructed along with the
reclamation of 60 ha of new harbour land. A total of 513 000 m3
of soil was improved, underwater, as the foundation for a
restraining wall behind the wharf (Hosomi et al., 1997).
By 1992, a collaboration with Japan had given rise to the
®rst CDM ¯eet in China, and this was used for the
construction of a harbour at Yantai Port. For this project a
total of 60 000 m3 of offshore treatment was designed and
executed independently by Chinese engineers (Tang, 1996).
Some other developments related to DM in South-East
Asia include the lime piles for the treatment of organic soil
in China (Ho, 1996), deep excavation in Taiwan (Woo, 1991), Fig. 11. Improved ground by rectangular DM
and several projects in Singapore (Broms, 1984).

Geotechnical Institute developed the Swedish lime column

(SLC) on the initiative of Kjeld Pause using equipment
Developments in Europe designed by Linden-Alimak AB (Rathmayer, 1997). Intensive
In Europe, research and development on DM mainly trials at the Ska Edeby airport test ®eld produced basic
originated in Sweden and Finland. In 1967 the Swedish knowledge on the behaviour of stabilized lime columns.

Others,
Slag cement,
3%
12%
Quicklime, Portland cement,
8% 47%

Other cement-based Slaked lime,

reagents, 1%
29%

Fig. 9. Distribution of stabilizers used in Japan (data from the DJM Association)

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 A. Porbaha

25

Land projects

20 Marine projects

Total volume
Cumulative volume: 10 6m3

15

10

0
77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93
Year

Fig. 12. Volume of improved soil by the CDM method for land and marine projects (data from Okumura, 1977)

16

14
Cumulative volume

Annual volume
12

10
Volume: 106 m3

0
81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95
Year

Fig. 13. Volume of improved soil by the DJM method (data from Okumura, 1977)

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 State of the art in deep mixing technology

Others,
Prevention of heaving, 6%
10%

Settlement prevention,
14%

Slide prevention,
53%

Foundation for
structures,
17%

(a)

Breakwater foundation,
Tunnel protection, 7%
14% Quay wall foundation,
40%

Revetment foundation, Road foundation/slide

36% prevention,
3%

(b)

Fig. 14. DM projects using CDM in Japan: (a) land projects; (b) marine projects (data from the CDM Association)

According to Assarson et al. (1974), the lime columns had a costs incurred through transportation and disposal of sur-
diameter of 0´5 m and a maximum length of 15 m. plus clays by means of bulk stabilization. The additives
In 1974 the ®rst trial embankment (6 m high and 8 m long) chosen were quicklime, cement, blast-furnace slag and
was constructed in Finland using lime columns, with the aim desulfurization products from coal-®red power plants. The
to analyse the effect of column pattern and column length on suitability of the binder mixtures was investigated in full-
the bearing capacity (Rathmayer and Leminen, 1980). scale ®eld tests (Karlstedt and Halkola, 1993).
During the 1970s and 1980s, research and development Kukko and Ruohomaki (1995) reported the results of 1355
work concentrated mainly on the composition of stabilizing laboratory tests with 195 admixture receipts and 21 soil
agents and optimizing the mixtures for different soil types. types, and developed a mathematical model predicting the
Broms and Boman (1977) compiled the experience gained ®nal compressive strength of a stabilized clay as a function
with the SLC method in a ®rst design handbook. At that of the water±cement ratio, the humus content, and the
time only unslaked lime was considered suitable as the quantity of ®nes.
binder for improvement of soft soil. However, later on In 1995 the Swedish Geotechnical Society published a new
several researchers (Nieminen, 1977; Viitanen, 1977; Kujala, design guide for lime and lime±cement columns (Carlsten,
1982) studied the applicability of gypsum and ¯y ash as 1995). The manual summarizes present knowledge in project
additives to quicklime. The state-of-the-art report of planning, execution and inspection. The English version of
Eggestad (1983) cited a number of publications dealing with the manual was released in 1996.
the chemical composition of new stabilizing agents used In Sweden a new research consortium, the Swedish Deep
with the lime column method. Stabilization Research Center, was formed in 1995 to spend
Holm et al. (1983) studied the long-term behaviour of US $8 million in research for a 5 year project in characteriza-
lime±gypsum mixtures, and recommended that the lime± tion, modelling, and quality assurance of DM, by combining
gypsum ratio be kept within a range of 3:1 for applications the efforts of industrial enterprises in lime and cement
where long-term stability was important. manufacturing, contractors and consultants, university insti-
Based on experience gained during the 1980s and the tutes and other research centres in Sweden. A similar
research work of Kujala and Lahtinen between 1987 and research project has been started in Finland for the ongoing
1989, a new design guide STO-91 (1992) was published in Road Structures Research Programme. This research pro-
Finland. About 3000 samples representing 29 sites in Fin- gramme will run until the year 2001 and its aim is to
land had been tested to understand the stabilizing reac- improve the overall performance of road structures.
tions. Apart from the Scandinavian countries, the Bulgarian
In 1991 the Geotechnical Department of the city of Academy of Sciences has reported research on soil cement
Helsinki investigated the possibility of reducing construction (Angelova and Evstatiev, 1991) and the application of DM

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 A. Porbaha

technology in the rehabilitation of railway embankments Others,

Grounds, Pipes,
Buildings,
9% 4%
(Evstatiev et al., 1995). 2% 9%
In the 1980s a variety of soil improvement applications
were realized, with the lime column method resulting in
annual installation ®gures exceeding 1 million m in both
Finland and Sweden (Fig. 15).
Deep stabilization with lime columns, which has been
increasingly used in Sweden over the last 20 years (Ahnberg
et al., 1994), has been applied for reduction of settlements
and improvement of stability in connection with the con-
struction of new roads and railways, and overall is regarded
as the dominant method for infrastructure development. Roads and railways,
Other applications include improvement of soil for pipes, 76%
excavations, stabilization of natural slopes and reduction of
Fig. 16. Various applications of the deep lime method in Sweden (1990±
vibration (Fig. 16). 91) (data from Ahnberg et al., 1995b)

Developments in the USA and was employed for the protection of a structure from soil
According to Jasperse and Ryan (1992) the roots of soil liquefaction during earthquakes (ENR, 1987).
mixing technology go back to the 1960s based on a US Since then, US practitioners have used DM for dam
patent (Liver). Bruce (1996) reports an earlier date of 1956 rehabilitation and have also gained a leading role in
attributed to the now-defunct Intrusion Prepakt Co. The developing technologies related to environmental applica-
®rst-mentioned patented technique describes a process tions. Dam rehabilitation applies the solidi®cation aspect of
which came to be known as mixed-in-place piles, in which a DM, in which impermeable cut-off walls are produced for
mechanical mixer was used to mix a cement grout into the seepage control in dams; and in environmental applications
soil for the purpose of creating foundation elements and the ®xation characteristics of DM are used to remove
retaining walls. contaminants from the ground. The construction of a cut-off
Despite wide acceptance of DM in Japan and South-East wall for the rehabilitation of Lockington dam in Ohio
Asian countries, the US construction industry was reluctant (Walker, 1994), Jackson Lake dam in Wyoming (Taki and
to accept this technique and to invest in research and Yang, 1991), and the Cushman Spillway Project in Washing-
development related issues, mainly due to the notion that ton (Yang and Takeshima, 1994) are a few examples. In
the technique was not cost-effective. However, signi®cant terms of environmental applications, in situ ®xation of PCBs
technological developments in Japan and successful exam- (poly-chlorinated biphenyls) on a site in Hialeah, Florida,
ples prompted a new era for this technique in the USA. In and the solidi®cation of an oily sludge lagoon near Chicago,
the late 1980s the new generation of mix-in-place systems Illinois, have been reported (Roy, 1990; Diaz and Guenther,
was introduced on a US project (Jasperse and Ryan, 1987), 1990; USEPA, 1991).

1.4

1.2
Sweden

Finland
1
Length of columns: 106 m

0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

0
85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92
Year

Fig. 15. Deep stabilization using the deep lime method in Sweden and Finland (data from Rathmayer, 1997)

90

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 State of the art in deep mixing technology

The largest scale project in the USA to use deep soil ECSMFE, 7, 7.167±7-172.
mixing is the multibillion dollar Central Artery/Tunnel Ando Y., Tsubi H., Yamamoto M., Harada K. and Nozo M. (1995)
Project in Boston that is due to be completed in 2001 Recent soil improvement methods for preventing liquefaction.
(Fairweather, 1996). Soil mix walls had been used earlier for Proceedings of Earthquake Geotechnical Engineering. Balkema,
Rotterdam, pp. 1011±1016.
excavation support in another part of the project, at Bird
Angelova R. and Evstatiev D. (1991) Strength gain stages of soil
Island Flats, near Logan Airport. cement. Proceedings of the 6th International IAEG Congress.
Balkema, Rotterdam, pp. 3147±3154.
Asano J., Ban K., Azuma K. and Takahashi K. (1996) Deep mixing
method of soil stabilization using coal ash. Proceedings of the 2nd
Summary and research needs International Conference on Ground Improvement Geosystems. Balk-
ema, Rotterdam, pp. 393±398.
Assarson K. G., Broms B., Granhom S. and Paus K. (1974) Deep
Over the last 30 years the improvement of soft ground Stabilization of Soft Cohesive Soils. Linden-Alimak, Skelleftea.
using DM has steadily progressed, allowing construction of Borong Y., Mingsheng S. and Meikun X. (1994) Research and
numerous infrastructure projects around the world. Several application of the retaining structures of deep cement mixed
features of DM include: rapid solidi®cation that reduces piles. Proceedings of Prediction versus Performance in Geotechnical
construction time, strength calibration by adjusting the per- Engineering. Balkema, Rotterdam, pp. 95±100.
centage of stabilizing reagent, a wide spectrum of applica- Broms B. B. (1984) Stabilization of soft clay with lime columns.
Proceedings of Seminar on Soil Improvement and Construction
tions, and low environmental impact during construction. Techniques on Soft Ground. Nanyang Technological Institute,
This method has also been employed for remediation of soil Singapore, pp. 120±133.
and groundwater in situ at hazardous waste sites by elimi- Broms B. B. and Boman P. (1977) Stabilization of Soil with Lime
nating excavation that might endanger surrounding struc- Columns. Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm.
tures. Several classi®cation systems exist for DM, discussed Bruce D. (1996) The return of deep soil mixing. Civil Engineering,
in terms of the geometry of the treated zone, construction ASCE, Dec., 44±46.
Carlsten P. (1995) Kalk-och Kalkcementpelare. Swedish Geotechnical
technique, and stabilizing agent.
Society, Linkdping, SGF Report 4:95.
Despite decades of research and ®eld observations, there CDM Association of Japan (1994) CDM Manual. Cement Deep
are many issues which need further investigation/develop- Mixing Association of Japan, Tokyo, pp. 1±194 (in Japanese).
ment. Some of these areas are stated here: Chida S. (1982) Dry Jet Mixing Method, State-of-the-art on Improvement
Methods for Soft Ground. Japanese Society of Soil Mechanics and
· Developing a rational and cost-effective design method- Foundation Engineering, Tokyo, pp. 69±76 (in Japanese).
ology that incorporates the interaction of treated soil with Diaz R. and Guenther J. (1990) Detoxi®er for contaminated soils.
the surrounding soft ground. Pollution Engineering, 22, No. 1, 100±103.
· Reducing the scale of execution equipment to allow DJM Association of Japan (1993) DJM Manual. Dry Jet Mixing
underground construction where space is limited. In fact, Association of Japan, pp. 1±75 (in Japanese).
Eggestad A. (1983) Improvement of cohesive soils, state-of-the-art
many new applications in populated urban areas will
report. Proceedings of the 8th ECSMFE, Helsinki.
bene®t from down-sizing construction equipment. ENR (1983) Weak seabed strata yields strong support. ENR Maga-
· Monitoring the long-term performance of the treated soil zine, 10 Mar., 30±31.
under special environmental conditions, such as freeze ENR (1986) Taipei untangles its rail lines. ENR Magazine, 13 Feb.,
and thaw (for projects in Nordic countries and North 41±42.
America), corrosive or organic soils, and so on. ENR (1987) Dam rebuilt to save it from quakes. ENR Magazine, 17
Sept., 46±47.
· Investigating the behaviour of DM columns under seismic
ENR (1989) Stockpile complex buried safety. ENR Magazine, 12 Jan.,
or dynamic loading conditions. 26±27.
· Developing high-performance samplers, or using versatile Evstatiev D., Angelova R. and Karastanev D. (1995) Stabilization
non-destructive or in situ techniques which eliminate or of weak railway embankment by lime columns and soil lime
reduce the adverse effect of sampling. cushion. Proceedings of the 10th Danube±European Conference on
SMFE, Mamaia, Romania, 1, 75±80.
The second paper in this series, to be published in the Fairweather V. (1996) Boston blockbuster. Civil Engineering, ASCE,
next issue of this journal, will place emphasis on different Dec., 40±43.
application areas and case histories of projects constructed Hirama K. and Torihara M. (1983) Dynamic properties of cement-
around the world. mixed soils. In¯uences of cement content and duration of
curing. Report of Ohbayashi Corp., Technical Institute, No. 26,
92±96 (in Japanese).
Ho C. (1996) Treatment of soft clays with high organic content using
lime piles. Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Soft
Acknowledgement Soil Engineering, Nanjing, 986±991.
Holm G., Trank R. and Ekstorm A. (1983) Improving lime column
Financial support by the Science and Technology Agency strength with gypsum. Proceedings of the 8th ECSMFE, Helsinki.
Honjo Y. (1982) A probabilistic approach to evaluate shear strength
of Japan is gratefully acknowledged.
of heterogeneous stabilized ground by deep mixing method.
Soils and Foundations, 22, No. 1, 23±38.
Hosomi H., Shigeru N., Satoshi T. and Chai C. Q. (1997) Method
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