Ground Improvement with Sodium Silicate Chemical Grouting to Tropical Volcanic Regions

In the tropical regions, especially in ASEAN countries, there is a growing demand for infrastructure development to meet the high economic growth rate. Therefore, the introduction of chemical grouting, which is widely used in Japan for ground improvement in underground construction, is desired. However, chemical grouting has been prohibited in Indonesia since the accident due to contamination caused by polymeric chemicals. Chemical grouting using sodium silicate, which has low toxicity, is expected to reduce the impact on the environment. In this study, the applicability of chemical grouting with sodium silicate was investigated since no study on sodium silicate has been conducted in Indonesia. In this experiment, chemical grout was injected into a soil sample simulating Indonesian soil, and after the chemical grout solidified, the hydraulic conductivity was measured by a falling water head permeability test. In conclusion, it was shown that chemical grouting with sodium silicate is effective for the improvement of tropical volcanic soils.