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Go to Editorial ManagerAn overview of electro-osmosis (EO) and electrokinetic (EK) soil treatment methods is provided in this paper, along with their impact on pile capacity, installation, and foundation shear strength after improving the geotechnical properties of weak soils, particularly soft clays. As a result of their low shear strength, high compressibility, and poor drainage characteristics, soft clayey soils pose significant challenges in civil engineering. With EO and EK, pore water and ions are moved through the soil matrix under an applied electric field, resulting in consolidation, increased shear strength, and reduced plasticity. This review explores the fundamental principles of EO and EK, including the mechanisms of water transport, ion migration, and electrochemical reactions. It examines various electrode configurations, treatment parameters, and their influence on soil improvement. Furthermore, the paper analyzes the effects of EO treatment on pile capacity, considering both the increase in soil strength and the reduction in pore water pressure during installation. The impact on pile installation methods, such as reducing driving resistance and improving grout penetration, is also discussed. Finally, the review investigates the enhancement of foundation shear strength through improved soil properties achieved by EO/EK treatment. By synthesizing existing research, this paper aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the potential benefits and limitations of EO and EK methods for ground improvement in soft clayey soils, offering valuable insights for future research and practical applications in geotechnical engineering.
Driven piles have often been used in many civil structures to provide structural loading support. However, the unavoidable vibrations induced by pile driving processes may cause varying degrees of damage to adjacent structures. This research presents experimental studies to investigate the transmitted vibrations induced by impact of pile driving on vicinity piles. In the experimental work, a small scale model was tested in a sand box (steel container 1 × 1.5 × 0.8 m) with pile driving hammer device to install the impact pile in sand soil by dropping weights (1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 kg) for different heights of falling (4, 8, 12, 16 and 20 cm). The peak particle velocity was measured at a head of the vicinity piles by vibration meter device. In this study, several piles on different distances away from the vibration source were studied. The experimental results indicate that the peak particle velocity for vibrations emitted with impact pile driving is increased with increasing the energy and the penetration depth of pile driving for all vicinity piles and it can be decreased without change in the driving energy by decreasing the weight of hammer and increasing the height of falling hammer. Vibration intensities are attenuated with increasing surface distance from the pile driving and the peak particle velocity decreased uniformly with surface distance from the pile driving for piles. Also, through laboratory model representation and evaluation of the results obtained in the laboratory, the empirical relations which were determined based on the scaled-distance concept, are appropriate and give results very close and can be relied upon to represent the transmission of vibration resulting from the impact of pile driving to nearby piles.