Effects of grout injection techniques in pressure grouted soil nail system

The use of pressure grouting techniques in the soil reinforcement system is frequent as it has many advantages over gravity grouting. Pressure grouting can be injected by pressure and volume (flow) controlled techniques. A preliminary study was conducted for a newly developed pressure grouted soil-nail system, where a latex membrane was used as a liner around the grouting outlet to form a Tube a Manchette (TAM) for direct injection of grout into sand. In addition, a grout bag was formed with the membrane to prevent the grout injection into the sand for simulating a compaction grouting. In the investigation, a newly developed volume controlled injection system was used to inject the cement grout into the sand or grout bag for a specified flow rate and the interaction of injected grouted with the soil mass (i.e., soil stress state) was monitored by the installed total earth pressure cell around the grout outlets. From the investigation, it was found that the injected grout volume was much less for the soil-nail (TAM) than that with a grout bag around for a certain flow rate. In addition, the preliminary results indicated that the pullout capacity of the pressure grouted soil-nail controlled by the injected grout volume (grout bulb).