## 4 Conclusions  
In this study, an experiment of the lateral consolidation compression of remolded soil was used to explore the influence of pile driving and soil squeezing. Scanning electron microscopy was used to examine microscopic pictures of soil with varying consolidation times. In addition, the data of pore characteristics were processed with IPP software to perform qualitative and quantitative investigations of the microstructure of the soil. The following conclusions were obtained:  
1. The microstructures of the soil sample before consolidation comprised debris, aggregated particles and irregular flake-like aggregates, with large pores between particles and no directional arrangement. After consolidation, the microstructure became a closed-type flake structure, and an obvious agglomeration phenomenon occurred. The connection mode of edge-edge and edge-surface between structural units shifted to the connection mode dominated by surface-surface. In addition, the soil mass was laterally compressed, and the structure tended to be stable. 2. During the consolidation compression process, the large pore structure was more likely to be compressed and damaged. The particles were cohesive, compressed and recombining with each other, resulting in a decrease in the equivalent pore diameter and plane porosity, a decrease in the area of small pores and an increase in the compactness of the soil. Furthermore, the fact that circularity was approaching unity indicated that, after consolidation, the degree of the homogeneity of the soil grew, and the soil exhibited obvious directionality. When the soil particles moved continuously under the action of consolidation compression to adjust the microstructure, the fractal dimension increased. The soil then progressively evolved to a new equilibrium condition, where the fractal dimension began to decrease and approach stability. 3. The changes in soil microstructure during the lateral compression experiment simulating the effects of pile driving and soil squeezing were divided into three stages. Special emphasis should be paid to the large change in micro-properties of soil that was subjected to lateral compression pressure at the middle stage. In addition, lateral displacement was prevalent, and the influence of soil extrusion was significant. At the later stages, the pore water pressure was considerably dissipated, and then the structural adjustment of the soil advanced to a somewhat stable stage. Within this period, the effect of soil squeezing induced by adjacent construction would be significantly lessened. Controlling the speed of pile driving, the sequence of pile driving and  
Figure 12: The curve of fractal dimension of soil pores under different consolidation time. the time interval between neighboring pile driving are all recommended as efficient methods to reduce the effect of pile driving and soil squeezing. In this study, stress redistribution and the rearrangement of particles may be caused by sampling for SEM analysis, and this disturbance cannot be effectively avoided during the operation of the experiment. However, the error can be eliminated as much as possible through multiple experiments. Therefore, it is necessary to note that this experiment has certain limitations, and it is hoped that future research makes breakthroughs in this field. Moreover, in view of the evolution law and microscopic mechanism of soil samples under lateral consolidation compression, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Technology (NMR) can be used for further discussion in the future. Conceptualization, Z.D. ; methodology, X.Z. and Z.D. ; software, X.Z. and M.-M.S. ; formal analysis, X.Z. and S.-H.H. ; investigation, X.Z., G.-D.Z. and T.-D.X. ; resources, Z.D. ; data curation, X.Z. ; writing--original draft preparation, X.Z. and Z.D. ; writing--review and editing, X.Z. and S.-H.H. ; visualization, X.Z. ; funding acquisition, Z.D. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript. This research was funded by the Chinese National Natural Science Foundation (Grant No.