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Geotechnical News • June 2014
29
THE GROUT LINE
Paolo Gazzarrini
Overture
35th episode of the Grout Line. For
this issue a short review of mine about
a very interesting and unique book
about Jet Grouting, and a short article
from my friend Sam Bandimere -
Grouting Consultant in Denver- Colo-
rado (sbandimere@msn.com), with a
brief review of the grouting industry
today.
Having done my first Jet Grouting
job in 1981, I am always interested in
articles and books about Jet Grouting.
A great number of papers have been
published at dedicated geotechnical
conferences about research, theo-
ries, quality control, results and case
histories. Several students’ theses
have been done with very interest-
ing research, but not summarized in
a single and a complete publication.
This book, at last, summarizes all-we-
must-know about Jet-Grouting; if not
all, definitely a lot!
I read consequently, over the past few
weeks, with great interest this book
that is written, I believe with pas-
sion and a lot of effort, by Professors
Croce, Flora and Modoni with the title
“Jet Grouting -Technology, Design
and Control”.
In 2004, the same authors published
a similar book about Jet Grouting,
only in Italian and consequently for a
restricted market, and I was curious to
compare the old Italian version (that I
considered very general) with this new
English version.
The authors, Paolo Croce and
Giuseppe Modoni, are Professor and
Associate Professor of Geotechni-
cal Engineering at the University Of
Cassino (Frosinone-Italy) and Ales-
sandro Flora is Associate Professor
of Geotechnical Engineering at the
University Of Naples (Italy).
The book is divided into 8 chapters:
• Chapter 1 starts with a brief intro-
duction and history of Jet Grouting
• Chapter 2 describes briefly the
technology
• Chapter 3 Mechanisms and effects
of Jet Grouting
• Chapter 4 Column properties
• Chapter 5 Jet Grouted structures
• Chapter 6 Design principles
• Chapter 7 Design examples
• Chapter 8 Controls
Some Chapters are more detailed,
some less. A lot of case histories and
references are presented, and very
interesting design approaches and
examples are illustrated. The book
closes with a long list of possible
controls for the results, sometimes
problematic in this technology.
Something more, maybe, could have
been said, about equipment (pumps,
drill rigs, mixers etc) and small tools
and devices (data loggers, verticality
control devices, etc.), but I found the
essence of the book to be excellent.
I read with special interest the two
chapters related to the design with
both principles and examples.
Only a small criticism (or what I
might call myself a venial sin), about
the visual “feeling” of the technology;
the Cover!
The front picture doesn’t do justice
to a good Jet Grouting job. It is, of
course, only a field test to calibrate the
parameters, and it is very interesting,
but it can give a negative impression
of the technology. Of course this can
happen anytime if the Jet Grouting
parameters are not correctly calibrated
with respect to the type of soil to be
treated!
Currently Jet Grouting is sometimes
considered unpopular (due to mishan-
dling of spoil and sometimes difficul-
ties in the final control), and a picture
like that can help those who mistreated
or neglected this very strong and
flexible soil improvement technique. I
would have preferred a picture like the
one at the top of the next page.
In a conclusion, despite -marginally-
the cover page, I consider this book
very complete and a must-read and
must-have book for anyone interested
in Jet Grouting and generically in
grouting, from Agencies to Engineers
to Contractors.
I would recommend that you include it
in your library and .... happy reading!