ABSTRACT
The use of soil mixing (SM) to improve the engineering and environmental properties of soft or contaminated ground has increased widely since its genesis. Growing interest for SM mainly results from the high exibility of this method, which can be purposely adapted to specic project requirements and site conditions, as well as from cost-to-performance efciency of respective geotechnical solutions. In this method of ground improvement, soils are mixed in situ with different stabilising binders, which chemically react with the soil and/or the groundwater. The stabilised soil material that is produced generally has a higher strength, lower permeability, and lower compressibility than the native soil. The improvement becomes possible by cation exchange at the surface of clay minerals, bonding of soil particles, and/or lling of voids by chemical reaction products. The most important binders are cements and limes. However, blast-furnace slag, gypsum, and ashes as well as other secondary products and compound materials are also used. For environmental treatment, binders are replaced with chemical oxidation agents or other reactive materials to render pollutants harmless.
