Modelling of a compensated foundation in GeoSuite Settlement

Sammanfattning: The world today is constantly growing, creating a need of new roads and residential areas. New constructions lead to an increased load onto the soil, which can result in deformations when the soil layers underneath are compressed. To reduce the increased load on the soil, a compensated foundation can be used. This method is based on the principle that the load from the construction will be compensated by the excavated soil, often replaced by a lightweight material. As an example, this method can be used in areas with great clay layers and in sensitive projects where the rise of deformations can have undesirable consequences. It is of great importance to be able to understand the impact this method has on the soil and what long-term deformations that can be expected.GeoSuite Settlement is a tool for calculation of settlements and is frequently used in the Nordic industry of geotechnical engineering. In this study, the possibilities of modelling a compensated foundation in the software has been examined. Additionally, an analysis of parameters has been conducted in the aim of evaluating the importance of the parameters in the modelling process and the final results. Three different projects have been used as a basis, where one of them is a made-up case, based on the test site of Lilla Mellösa, and two actual cases designed by Structor Geoteknik Stockholm AB. Only one of these two projects have been completed, enabling post-construction measuring to be able to compare the calculated deformations with measured data, just about 16 months post-construction.Mainly three different approaches to the modelling of a compensated foundation has been studied in this work; unloading and loading, only loading corresponding to the total increase of load and with an edited soil profile adapted for a lightweight material (the description of the methods are to be found in Appendix 11.7). Similar patterns of deformations have been found in the results for the three methods, aside from one case where a slightly larger deformation occurred as a result of the lightweight material getting in contact with the underlying clay (instead of the filling/ dry crust). Based on this work, the simplest method is suggested to be used, i.e. only loading corresponding to the increased load.Due to the time limitations of this work, a decision to only study a few parameters in the analysis has been made and also to study them individually. Since the compressibility and creep characteristics of the clay is strongly dependent on the actual and former situation of the stress, the results of this parameter study are not directly applicable to any other case. However, this study clearly shows the importance of carefully evaluating the parameters of the clay, especially the preconsolidation pressure σ’c and the compressibility modulus M, which are important to obtain lifelike results. The importance of evaluating the time resistance value rS with respect to the current addition of stress has also been shown in this study. As expected, the groundwater level also plays an important role for the final settlements in the clay.