Properties of Foam and Soil Improvements for Earth-Pressure Balance Shield Construction in Red Soils

Soil improvement by foam is a key technique to control formation damage in shield construction. The half-life of three kinds foam was obtained by test self-developed foam and other two types. Meanwhile, their characteristics of stability and dissipation were analyzed. The physical-mechanical characteristic of red clay which was improved by foam was tested. Test result show that as the foam concentration increasing, the cohesion and plastic fluidity of soil increases firstly and then decreases, but the internal fiction angle decrease always. The permeability of red clay was measured by penetration test. The impregnation depth of foam in red clay was analyzed. The results provide key parameters for shield construction to prevent engineering accidents, such as, flowing, sand gushing, mud boiling, collapse and so on.