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

150C(I) + C(K) - Group EfficiencyGroup efficiency calculations performed on the groups of piers composed of cement type Iand type K are presented in Table 32. The calculations were only performed with respect tosingle piers and no analysis was done with the respect to unit cell. Similar observations weremade in regard with the findings obtained for the previously described groups of aggregatepiers that were evaluated in terms of single pier.The group efficiency results analyzed on the basis of variation in pier length have shown nosignificant difference in group efficiency between short or long piers. Therefore, the obtainedresults can lead to a final conclusion that the efficiency of the piers within the group isindependent of the length of the pier.Based on the amount of settlement that the groups of piers had undergone, the efficiency wasalso compared at levels of 2 mm, 5 mm and 10 mm of settlement. A general conclusion canbe made that for the most piers a trend of reduction in group efficiency was observed withincreasing amount of settlement. This observation is consistent with the reduction of groupefficiency trend observed in case with earlier described groups of aggregate piers.Finally, by looking at the influence of number of piers within the group on the overall groupefficiency results, no definitive conclusion could be made due to a very close margin ofvariation in the calculated efficiency values. The unit cell was observed to have groupefficiency in the vicinity of 0.7, while group of six had the efficiency of 0.4, thus, it can bespeculated that there is some evidence for the reduction in efficiency with increasing numberof piers within the group. However, in order to confirm the hypothesis more testing would berequired.Having obtained similar test results between tested groups of aggregate pier and cement typeI and K composition groups, it must be noted that the group efficiency results calculated for Iand K composition groups were found within 0.4 - 0.9 margin, while almost all aggregate