Settlement evaluation of soft ground reinforced by deep mixed columns

According to the similitude theory, a 1-g physical model test for soft ground with deep mixed columns was conducted. The effect of column length, area replacement ratio and surcharge load on foundation settlement was investigated. The column length was varied from 40 cm to 100 cm while the area replacement ratio was changed from 0.023 to 0.093. Test results show that the foundation settlement will decrease with the increase of column length when area replacement ratio and surcharge load are certain. There is a trend of increased settlement difference between foundation with longer column and shorter column as the increase of surcharge load. For the same column length, smaller foundation settlement will be generated by bigger area replacement ratio.