Construction of Crushed Brick Column Reinforcement as A Sustainable Ground Improvement Technique

This researcher investigates the efficiency of crushed brick for reinforcing the soft kaolin by applying the stone column technique. The use of this material complies with sustainability concept and it is cost-effective. The construction of stone column can be done using the vibro-replacement method, where the researchers demonstrated the combination of crushed brick into the soft clay soil. Related geotechnical laboratory works were implemented for determining the properties of crushed brick and kaolin clay. The shear strength parameters were accessed from Unconfined Compression Test (UCT) using 21 samples at different design. Each design has 3 samples, including control sample used, three (3) samples of 10 mm diameter, three (3) samples of 16 mm diameter crushed brick column and they were analysed in different height comprising 60 mm, 80 mm, and 100 mm respectively. The results of shear strength improvement from diameter of 10 mm column with height penetrating ratio of 1.0, 0.6 and 0.8 were 13.33%, 12.31% and 9.79% respectively. While for 16 mm column diameter with height penetrating ratio of 1.0 showing the highest, 16.10% followed by 0.6 and 0.8 indicating 13.49% and 11.35% respectively. Conclusively, the improvement of shear strength of kaolin clay relies on the design of crushed brick column reinforcement.