Modeling a Weak Foundation in Interaction with Reinforced Sand Piles under a Low-Rise Building

One of the ways to increase the bearing capacity and stability of a water-saturated base by introducing a sand pile vertically reinforced along the contour with geosynthetic material (geogrid SSP 30 / 30-2.5) is experimentally substantiated. This constructive solution is used in low-rise construction. For the theoretical substantiation of the suggested method, it is proposed to model the interaction of a weak foundation and a reinforced sand pile on the basis of the linear theory of viscoelasticity. Calculation of vertical displacements of the pile and comparison with the results of in situ experiments is presented.

Settlement Behavior Evaluation of Soft-Clay Layer Reinforced with Sand Piles

In this study, the performances of the sand piles in Istanbul's Bağcılar and Zeytinburnu districts has been analyzed using Finite Element Method (FEM). Single and group (triple) piles with various length/diameter ratios (L/D) were placed in the water-saturated soft clay soil. Sand piles were modeled in various L/D ratios (10, 5.71, and 8.57). The distance between the piles was chosen as 2 meters and the group effect was also investigated. A uniformly distributed load of 162 kN/m2 is placed on the ground. In addition, the soil was modeled with the Soft-Soil soil model, the hardening soil model for the infill part, and the sand piles with the Mohr-Coulomb soil model. According to the results , the settlement of the soil decreases by 52.8% for a single pile with an L/D ratio of 8.57. However, the best L/D ratio for triple piles was found to be 5.71. In this case, the settlement decreases by 52.8% compared to the pileless situation. Finally it was concluded that the model with the L/D ratio of 8.57 reduced settlement in the best and the most efficient way.

Effect of Sand and Sand-Lime Piles on the Behavior of Expansive Clay Soil

Expansive clay soil causes serious problems to many structures due to its swelling and shrinkage during wet and dry seasons. With the existence of expansive soil in Ahkmim new city, Sohag governorate, Egypt, some light buildings, road pavements, and buried pipelines have shown some damage. To avoid such damage, prior to construction, expansive clay soils should be stabilized. Different methods are available to improve the engineering properties of these soils such as densification, chemical stabilization, reinforcement, and techniques of pore water pressure reduction. The chemical stabilization of clay using lime is one of the widespread methods that can be used to improve the behavior of expansive clay soil. This study aims to investigate the effect of both sand and sand-lime piles on the behavior of expansive clay soil. A series of laboratory tests were carried out using the conventional Oedometer apparatus. Sand piles with different replacement area ratios (RARs) (4.68%, 10.16%, 24.6%, 35.84%, and 56.9%) were used. Also, sand piles stabilized with different percentages of lime (3%, 6%, 9%, 12%, 15%, and 20%) and with a replacement area ratio of 35.84% were used. The experimental results showed there is a significant improvement in reducing the swelling potential of expansive clay soil reinforced with sand or sand-lime piles. This improvement increases with the increase of both replacement area ratio and lime content.

MULTIFRACTAL STRUCTURE IN SAND DRAWINGS

The construction of an abstract expressionist artwork is driven by chaotic mechanisms that sculpt multifractal characteristics. Jackson Pollock’s paintings, for example, arise due to the random process of depositing drops and jets of paint on a canvas. However, most of the paintings and drawings try to recreate with fidelity common forms, natural landscapes, and the human figure. Accordingly, in the context of the formation of statistically self-similar objects, a question persists: will it be possible to find some vestige of multifractal structure in drawings or paintings whose elaboration process tries to avoid chaos? In this work, we scrutinize into several artistic drawings in sand to answer this intriguing question. These pieces of art are elaborated using craters, furrows, and sand piles; and some of them are inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. We prove that the sand drawings analyzed here are multifractal objects. This finding suggests that a piece of visual art, which may initially appear ordered, contains many components distributed at different degrees of self-similarity that substantially increase the structural complexity.