Soil bracing

When the digging is realized, the precinct that appears can have vertical or
inclined walls (borders).

Bracings in narrow spaces (a) and in wide spaces (b)

The diggings made with inclined walls are also named embankment
diggings. These kinds of diggings can be with natural embankment (for
cohesive less soils) or with stable embankment (for cohesive soils).
It is necessary that the embankment slope, defined as the tangent of the
inclined angle with respect to the horizontal (tan =h/b), not to overcome
the maximum admissible values given by standards.
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The maximum admissible values given by standards

Digging depth
The Soil
Nature

Up to
tan =

Bigger than
h
b

tan =

Sand,
gravel

1
1.25

1
0.50

Clayey
sand

1
0.67

1
1

Clay
Loess

1
0.50
1
0.50

h
b

1
0.67
1
0.75

The bracings can be classified in:

Narrow space bracings when the soil pushing is transmitted from a
border to another.
Wide space bracings when the soil pushing is transmitted to the bottom
of the digging.
Soils have the property of maintaining their stability a certain period of time
(8 24 h) without bracing till they lose their natural humidity. This
property is defined for a certain height (h0) with respect to the soil
characteristics. The height h0 is shown in the following table:

The digging specific height

Table-The digging height (h0) with respect to the soil characteristics

Soil type

h0

Drifting Sand

0.25 m

Soft Soil

0.25 0.75 m

Hard Soil

0.75 1.25 m

Very Hard Soil

1.25 2.50 m

The bracing systems for narrow or wide spaces are presented bellow:

Bracing systems for narrow

spaces
Splice sprait

Bracing systems for wide spaces

Strut - contrafisa
For unstable soils another procedure is used. In order to overcome the
instability of the borders the bracing system is made approximately
simultaneous with the digging. In this case the initial digging height is 30
40 cm.

Soil compacting
Soil compaction is made in order to consolidate the terrain and to increase
its stability.
By compacting the spaces that exist between solid particles are decreased.
Usually is used the term layer by layer compaction because this procedure
is applied for fillings in layers up to one meter.
The compacted fillings for civil engineering are those made for building
foundations, for spaces between foundations or for spaces bellow floors.
The fillings are usually made using the soils resulted from excavation.
Slag and mineral residues can also be used for fillings but only after a
technological sheet is made in order to provide the performing conditions
and to check the quality of these materials.
Before filling is made, the removing of vegetal soil is obligatory and the
resulted surface is arranged with 1 1.5% slopes for water eviction.
There are a number of mathematical formulas in order to establish the
compaction.
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These are:
a. The compacting degree:

max

Where:
k The compacting coefficient;
The density of the compacted soil sample;
max The density of the soil sample obtained in standardized conditions.
The compaction has to be made with a force that will not overtake the
braking limit of the soil.
b. The compacting forces that appear can be:
1.
2.
3.
All

The pressure force;

The impact force;
The vibration force;
compacting devices have a combined action of pressure and one of the
other forces.
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c. The compacting methods are:

Compaction by rolling is made by using a pressure force combined
sometimes with a vibrating one.
The working devices can have the contact surface plane or with prominence.

Soil compacting by rolling

Dog spikes compacting device

 Compaction by beating is realized through the socks produced by a

relatively big weight that is allowed to fall from a certain height.

Soil compacting by beating

Compaction by vibrations is a method used in combination with the
rolling one.
It results that the devices used for rolling have also a vibrating property that
is transmitted to the soil.
Soil compacting by vibrating
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The number of passing represents the fact that each horizontal elementary
layer is individually compacted, and only after its compaction is completed
the soil is spread to the following layer.
The numbers of passing depend upon the compacting device, the soil nature
and its humidity degree.
Water evacuation
The waters that result from rains and snow (the so called superficial waters)
usually flood the buildings precinct.
This water that can affect the embankments of the precinct is collected in an
open guarding trench placed outside the digging territory.

Superficial water evacuation

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This trench is prolonged outside the area where the waters can infiltrate in
the precinct.

Different trenches for water collecting

The water flowing speed is determined with respect to the slope value of the
trenchs bottom.

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Water evacuation by using trenches

The precipitation waters that fall directly in the precinct, as well as the
waters that appear from its bottom, are collected in trenches placed at the
lowest level of the digging but outside the main territory.
These waters are directed to one or more collecting points and then are
evacuated by using pumps.
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If the infiltration flow is big, because the excavations placement is bellow the
phreatic layer, the water evacuation by pumping is very difficult.
So, another method is used, the so called phreatic layer descending
procedure.
It consists in introducing a number of cleaning strainers (filtre aciculare)
into the soil and pumping the water through a pump that is linked to the
filters by two pipes .

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