G MS THESIS_final version_Maxim Prokudin.pdf - Digital Repository ...

149As previously outlined, the stiffness ratio calculations were performed and the results haveshown a significant amount of soil improvement as outlined by n value increasingproportionally to the number of piers within a group. Another conclusion was made whereregardless of the pier length the same group of piers had a relatively the same impact on theamount of soil improvement.The loess unreinforced matrix soil values were adopted from the plate load tests performedduring testing of groups of aggregate piers. No plate load tests were done on the unreinforcedsoil for test bed conditions prepared specifically for groups of type I and K compositionpiers. Therefore, some discrepancy may have been induced due to slightly varying test bedsoil conditions.Also, the tell-tale plate deflection information was collected for all the tested groups of piers,however most of the groups had the steel plate cemented to the housing tubes containing telltalerods. The binding happened in the process of pouring a grout cap in order to provideeven distribution of the load among the piers within the group. Therefore, even though mostof the groups of piers experienced the same amount of relative movement between the tipand top of the pier, the tell-tale data must be utilized with caution.C(I) + C(K) – Bearing CapacityThe obtained bearing capacity results for cementitious composition groups of piers are shownin Table 34. The values were found to increase with the increasing number of piers within thegroup. No particular trend was noticed between short and long groups of piers, where thedifference varied between 1.0 for unit cell and 2.0 for group of six piers.No comparison between lab and field bearing capacity was performed and can be a subject ofinvestigation in future research.