Confirmation of Candidature : Candidate - Kiritharan Mahalingasivam

An Experimental Study of Clay Foundation with Reinforced Crusher Dust Platform

Date:	03 July 2019
Time:	2:00 PM - 3:30 PM
Venue:	Toowoomba - Q303, or via Zoom
Contact:	For more information, please contact the Graduate Research School.
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Construction of infrastructure on soft clay foundation such as temporary site access roads, low embankments, car parks and working platform for machineries is vulnerable for shear failure and excessive settlement. Such site conditions should be analysed carefully to put up a safe and durable infrastructure. 

There are various techniques available to resolve these type issue such as introducing deep foundations, consolidation techniques and soil stabilisation. These methods are time consuming and involves high costs. One effective way of improving such soil condition is introducing granular platform on top of the clay foundation. The load carrying capacity could be further improved by introducing geotextile at the interface of clay/platform layer. Geotextile not only function as reinforcement member, also perform separation, filtration and drainage functions, hence improving the performance of weak clay foundation.

In this research, performance in terms of bearing capacity and settlement will be studied experimentally. Various thickness of platform with prestressing effort will be carried out in three stages. Initially, clay with platform material, secondly geotextile with and without “anchored” position and finally, geotextile in a prestress state will be analysed. Furthermore, Geo PIV (Particle Image Velocimetry) analysis will be used to study particle movement. It is aimed to draw some useful conclusions that can be used in practical design considerations.