Dynamic Replacement

Dynamic Replacement (DR) is an extension of Dynamic Compaction (DC) to compressible soils (such as soft clays, silt, sabkha…) where large diameter columns (up to 2.5 m diameter) of very dense granular materials are constructed by dropping heavy pounders from great heights onto the soft soil.

Dynamic Replacement (DR) technique can be implemented as a global treatment for the complete site or localized treatment under foundations only in order to increase the soil bearing capacity and reduce the total and differential post-construction settlements.

This method combines the advantages from both dynamic compaction and stone columns techniques by creating large sized granular columns with high stiffness and internal shear resistance and overall improvement of mechanical characteristics of the intermediate soil.

A large variety of readily available granular materials may be used for construction of the DR columns. Clean well graded sands may be the most suitable; however, other sources such as dune sands, gravel/sand mix, concrete rubble/crushed gravel mixed with sand etc. may also be successfully used.

Key features:
– Applicable for wide range of soils down to significant depths up to 8m
– Very fast production (more than 30,000 sq.m/crane/shift/month)
– Well adapted to large scale projects
– Very flexible specifications for the backfilling material
– DR method is suited for very soft soils such as Sabkha & soft clay
– Speed-up the consolidation of soft clays due to potential drainage through the DR columns

Thanks to its efficiency, versatility and high cost saving, Dynamic Replacement (DR) method is well suited for wide range of applications and projects with different sizes up to several million sq.m, covering industrial buildings, oil and gas facilities, infrastructure constructions, platforms and logistics facilities, commercial and residential buildings, tanks…