Experimental investigation of compaction-grouted soil nails

An innovative compaction-grouted soil nail was designed by injecting grout into a special latex balloon (grouting bag) to avoid bleeding and penetration of grout into the surrounding soil. A series of large-scale model tests was performed to study the surrounding soil responses due to grouting and the subsequent pull-out resistance of the soil nail. The experimental results show that grouting pressure plays an important role in the enhancement of the density and (or) strength of the surrounding soil. In addition, during the pull-out process, the compaction-grouted soil nail exhibits a strain-hardening behaviour without a yield point. This is a significant advantage of this new soil nail, indicating that it can enable soil masses to remain stable against a relatively large deformation before ultimate failure. The main factors behind the improvement of the pull-out resistance of the new soil nail are, first, the compaction-densification of the soil near the grouting bag due to grouting, resulting in the enhancement of the shear strength of the soil, and, second, the enlargement of the grouting bag, causing the increase of the interface shear and end resistance to the pull-out of the soil nail.