Stone Columns with Vertical Circumferential Nails: Laboratory Model Study

This paper presents results from a series of laboratory plate load tests carried out in unit cell tanks to investigate the improvement in stiffness, load carrying capacity and resistance to bulging of stone columns installed in soft soils. A new method of reinforcing the stone columns with vertical nails installed along the circumference of the stone column is suggested for improving the performance of these columns. Tests were carried out with two types of loading (1) the entire area in the unit cell tank loaded, to estimate the stiffness of improved ground and (2) only the stone column loaded, to estimate the limiting axial capacity. It is found that stone columns reinforced with vertical nails along the circumference have much higher load carrying capacity and undergo lesser compression and lesser lateral bulging as compared to conventional stone columns. The benefit of vertical circumferential nails increases with increase in the diameter, number and depth of embedment of the nails. The improvement in the performance of stone column was found to be more significant, even with lower area ratio. It is found that reinforcing stone column with vertical circumferential nails at the top portion to a depth equal to three times the diameter of stone columns, will be adequate to prevent the column from excessive bulging and to improve its load carrying capacity substantially.     

Modeling of granular bed‐stone column‐improved soft soil

The present study pertains to the development of a mechanical model for predicting the behavior of granular bed‐stone column‐reinforced soft ground. The granular layer that has been placed over the stone column‐reinforced soft soil has been idealized by the Pasternak shear layer. The saturated soft soil has been idealized by the Kelvin–Voigt model to represent its time‐dependent behavior and the stone columns are idealized by stiffer Winkler springs. The nonlinear behavior of the granular fill has been incorporated in this study by assuming a hyperbolic variation of shear stress with shear strain as in one reported literature. Similarly, for soft soil it has also been assumed that load‐settlement variation is hyperbolic in nature. The effect of consolidation of the soft soil due to inclusion of the stone columns has also been included in the model. Plane‐strain conditions are considered for the loading and foundation soil system. The numerical solutions are obtained by a finite difference scheme and the results are presented in a non‐dimensional form. Parametric studies for a uniformly loaded strip footing have been carried out to show the effects of various parameters on the total as well as differential settlement and stress concentration ratio. It has been observed that the presence of granular bed on the top of the stone columns helps to transfer stress from soil to stone columns and reduces maximum as well as differential settlement. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Nonlinear analysis of footings on granular bed–stone column improved soft soil

In this paper, a model for the analysis of footings having finite flexural rigidity resting on a granular bed on top of stone columns improved saturated soft (clayey) soil has been proposed. Soft soil has been modeled as a Kelvin–Voigt body to represent its time dependent behavior. Pasternak shear layer has been used to represent the granular layer and the stone columns have been idealized by means of nonlinear Winkler springs. Nonlinear behavior of granular fill, soft soil and stone columns has been invoked by means of hyperbolic constitutive relationships. Governing differential equations for the soil–foundation system have been obtained and finite difference method has been adopted for solving these, using the Gauss-elimination iterative scheme. Detailed parametric study for a combined footing has been carried out to study the influence of parameters, like magnitude of applied load, flexural rigidity of footing, diameter of stone column, spacing of stone column, ultimate bearing capacity of granular fill, poor foundation soil and stone column, relative stiffness of stone columns and degree of consolidation, on flexural response of the footing.     

Improvement of soft clay using installation of geosynthetic-encased stone columns: numerical study

The use of geosynthetic-encased stone columns as a method for soft soil treatment is extensively used to increase the bearing capacity and reduce the settlement of raft foundations and the foundation of structures like embankments. Pre-strain is an effect occurring in the encasement during stone column installation due to the compaction of the stone material. The present study uses the finite element program Plaxis to perform a numerical analysis of the soft clay bed reinforced by geosynthetic-encased stone columns. An idealization is proposed for simulation of installation of geosynthetic-encased stone columns in soft clay based on the unit-cell concept. In the analyses, initially, the validity of the analysis of the single column-reinforced soil in the unit-cell model was performed through comparison with the group columns. Then, by considering a unit-cell model, the finite element analyses were carried out to evaluate the stiffness of the reinforced ground to estimate the settlement. The results of the analyses show that the improved stiffness of the encased stone column is not only due to the confining pressure offered by the geosynthetic after loading, but the initial strain of the geosynthetic that occurred during installation also contributes to the enhancement of the stiffness of the stone column and the reduction of the settlement.     

A Critical Review of Construction, Analysis and Behaviour of Stone Columns

Stone columns have been used as an effective technique for improving the engineering behaviour of soft clayey grounds and loose silt deposits. The soil improvement via stone columns are achieved from accelerating the consolidation of weak soil due to shortened drainage path, increasing the load carrying capacity and/or settlement reduction due to inclusion of stronger granular material. This paper discusses the techniques, methods of construction of stone columns, mechanisms of stone column behaviour under load and associated design philosophies along with some practical findings from recent research programs.     

Stone column effectiveness in soils with creep: a numerical study

While it is well established that vibro stone columns reduce primary settlement and improve bearing capacity, their effect on creep compression has largely been overlooked to date. However, with increasing pressure to develop marginal sites underlain by soft organic soils, the effect of ground treatment on creep is an important emerging issue in geotechnical engineering. In this paper, a series of axisymmetric unit cell analyses have been carried out using the PLAXIS 2D finite element program in conjunction with the Soft Soil Creep (SSC) model. Examination of the evolution of settlement improvement factor with time has indicated that the presence of creep leads to a lower ‘total’ improvement factor than would be obtained for primary consolidation settlement alone. Separate ‘primary’ and ‘creep’ improvement factors have also been derived; the latter are much lower than the former, but are nevertheless greater than unity. Creep results in a stress transfer process; as the soil creeps, vertical stress is transferred from the soil to the stone column. The additional load carried by the column induces additional yielding and shear-plane formation in closely-spaced columns. The additional increment of stress transferred to the already yielded column reduces its efficacy.     

Numerical analysis of the installation effects on the behaviour of soft clay improved by stone columns

This paper addresses the installation effects of stone columns in soft soils. Focus is made on the lateral expansion of stone material using the vibro displacement and substitution techniques by means of numerical simulations. The behaviour of reinforced soil after stone column installation is investigated to show how the properties of soft soils can be improved prior to final loading. The effect of such an improvement on the prediction of reinforced soil settlement is evaluated. The axisymmetric unit cell model (UCM) served for the comparison between numerical predictions made by the Mohr-Coulomb and hardening soil constitutive laws adopted for the soft soil. An equivalent group of end bearing columns model was investigated in the axisymmetric condition to predict the settlement of reinforced soil by adopting the Mohr-Coulomb constitutive model for soft clay. The reduction of settlements predicted by the unit cell and group of columns models, due the improvement of the Young’s modulus of soft clay, were compared. It is concluded that a significant reduction of settlement is expected when the group of columns model is considered.     

Performance of Stone Columns in Soft Clay: Numerical Evaluation

Stone columns (or granular piles) are increasingly being used for ground improvement. This study investigates the qualitative and quantitative improvement in soft clay by stone columns. Finite element analyses were carried out to evaluate the performance of stone columns in soft clay. A drained analysis was carried out using Mohr–Coulomb’s criterion for soft clay, stones, and sand. The interface elements were used at the interface between the stone column and soft clay. Analyses and calculations were carried out to determine equivalent parameters of soil/columns system. The bearing capacity ratio (BCR) of the soil has been estimated for homogeneous and heterogeneous soil. The results have shown that the values of BCR for homogeneous soil are obviously higher than those for heterogeneous soil.     

Finite Element Analysis of Geogrid Encased Stone Columns

Stone columns in soft soil improve bearing capacity because they are stiffer than the material which they replace, and compacted stone columns produce shearing resistances which provide vertical support for overlying structures or embankments. Also stone columns accelerate the consolidation in the native surrounding soil and improve the load settlement characteristics of foundation. In this paper, the finite element method is utilized as a tool for carrying out analyses of stone column–soil systems under different conditions. A trial is made to improve the behaviour of stone column by encasing the stone column with geogrid as reinforcement material. The program CRISP-2D is used in the analysis of problems. The program allows prediction to be made of soil deformations considering Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion for elastic–plastic soil behaviour. A parametric study is carried out to investigate the behaviour of standard and encased floating stone columns in different conditions. Different parameters were studied to show their effect on the bearing improvement and settlement reduction of the stone column. These include the length to diameter ratio (L/d), shear strength of the surrounding soil and, the area replacement ratio (a_s) and others. It was found that the maximum effective length to diameter (L/d) ratio is between (7–8) for Cu, between (20–40) kPa and between (10–11) for Cu?=?10?kPa for ordinary floating stone columns while the effective (L/d) ratio is between (7–8) for encased floating stone columns. The increase in the area replacement ratio increases the bearing improvement ratio for encased floating stone columns especially when the area replacement ratio is greater than (0.25). The geogrid encasement of stone column greatly decreases the lateral displacement compared with ordinary stone column.     

Performance of geosynthetic-reinforced granular piles in soft clays: Model tests and numerical analysis

The laboratory model tests and numerical analyses have been performed on reinforced granular piles installed in very soft clay. The granular piles were reinforced with geosynthetic in the form of vertical encasement, horizontal strips and combined vertical-horizontal reinforcement. The short term-displacement control model tests were carried out either only a granular pile loaded or with an entire area loaded. The laboratory results in the form of vertical load intensity-settlement behaviour were compared with that obtained from FEM software, PLAXIS 3D. The results indicated significant improvement in ultimate load intensity and stiffness of treated ground due to inclusion of geosynthetic.     

Axi-symmetric Analysis of Geosynthetic-reinforced Granular Fill-soft Soil System with Group of Stone Columns

The paper presents a mechanical model to predict the behavior of geosynthetic-reinforced granular fill resting over soft soil improved with group of stone columns subjected to circular or axi-symmetric loading. The saturated soft soil has been idealized by spring-dashpot system. Pasternak shear layer and rough elastic membrane represent the granular fill and geosynthetic reinforcement layer, respectively. The stone columns are idealized by stiffer springs. The nonlinear behavior of granular fill and soft soil is considered. Consolidation of the soft soil due to inclusion of stone columns has also been included in the model. The results obtained by using the present model when compared with the reported results obtained from laboratory model tests shows very good agreement. The effectiveness of geosynthetic reinforcement to reduce the maximum and differential settlement and transfer the stress from soft soil to stone columns is highlighted. It is observed that the reduction of settlement and stress transfer process are greatly influenced by stiffness and spacing of the stone columns. It has been further observed that for both geosynthetic-reinforced and unreinforced cases, the maximum settlement does not change if the ratio between spacing and diameter of stone columns is greater than 4.     

Influence of stone column installation on settlement reduction

The paper presents numerical simulations investigating the settlement reduction caused by stone columns in a natural soft clay. The focus is on the influence of the soft soil alteration caused by column installation. A uniform mesh of end-bearing columns under a distributed load was considered. Therefore, the columns were modelled using the “unit cell” concept, i.e. only one column and the corresponding surrounding soil in axial symmetry. The properties of the soft clay correspond to Bothkennar clay, which is modelled using S-CLAY1 and S-CLAY1S, which are Cam clay type models that account for anisotropy and destructuration. The Modified Cam clay model is also used for comparison. Column installation was modelled independently to avoid mesh distortions, and soft soil alteration was directly considered in the initial input values. The results show that the changes in the stress field, such as the increase of radial stresses and mean stresses and the loss of overconsolidation, are beneficial for high loads and closely spaced columns but, on the contrary, may be negative for low loads, widely spaced columns and overconsolidated soils. Moreover, whilst the rotation of the soil fabric reduces the settlement, in contrast the soil destructuration during column installation reduces the improvement.     

包裹碎石桩承载特性试验研究

为了研究包裹碎石桩的承载机制,开展了室内模型试验,对不同套筒长度和刚度的包裹碎石桩承载力、端阻力、变形和破坏情况等进行了分析。试验中利用自制的桩体径向变形测量仪监测了桩体的径向变形情况。试验结果表明：当桩体支承在坚硬土层时,全长包裹碎石桩有效提高碎石桩的承载力和刚度,且采用弹性模量较大的土工材料套筒,包裹碎石桩的极限承载力和刚度也较大,部分包裹碎石桩（包裹长度为0.6倍桩长）相对于碎石桩优势不明显。这是因为部分包裹碎石桩和全长包裹的承载特性、变形特点和破坏模式均存在差异。全长包裹碎石桩传递至桩底端的荷载大于部分包裹碎石桩和碎石桩的。与部分包裹碎石桩和碎石桩比较,全长包裹碎石桩桩身变形分布较为均匀,同一应力作用下,桩身最大径向变形量较小。此外,全长包裹碎石桩刺入顶部褥垫层发生破坏,而部分包裹碎石桩发生鼓胀破坏。     

Response of multilayer geosynthetic-reinforced bed resting on soft soil with stone columns

In the present study, a mechanical model has been developed to study the behavior of multilayer geosynthetic-reinforced granular fill over stone column-reinforced soft soil. The granular fill and geosynthetic reinforcement layers have been idealized by Pasternak shear layer and rough elastic membranes, respectively. The Kelvin–Voight model has been used to represent the time-dependent behavior of saturated soft soil. The stone columns are idealized by stiffer springs and assumed to be linearly elastic. The nonlinear behavior of the soft soil and granular fill is considered. The effect of consolidation of soft soil due to inclusion of the stone columns on settlement response has also been included in the model. Plane strain conditions are considered for the loading and reinforced foundation soil system. An iterative finite difference scheme is applied for obtaining the solution and results are presented in nondimensional form. It has been observed that if the soft soil is improved with stone columns, the multilayer reinforcement system is less effective as compared to single layer reinforcement to reduce the total settlement as there is considerable reduction in the total settlement due to stone column itself. Multilayer reinforcement system is effective for reducing the total settlement when stone columns are not used. However, multilayer reinforcement system is effective to transfer the stress from soil to stone column. The differential settlement is also slightly reduced due to application of multiple geosynthetic layers as compared to the single layer reinforcement system.     

Factors Affecting the Settlement Estimation of Stone Column Reinforced Soils

The ground improvement technique of stone columns has been effectively used over the last decades in order to accelerate the consolidation rate of soft soils by providing a drainage path, reduce foundation settlements, improve the bearing capacity of the soil, and limit the risk of liquefaction due to seismic activity. Because of the time consumption of a three dimensional (3D) calculation, most stone column projects are presently studied by axisymmetric finite element computations. Otherwise, it is the analytical method of Priebe that is commonly used to predict the final settlements of a single stone column and the corresponding settlement reduction factor. Both methods, axisymmetric finite element analysis and Priebe’s analytical method make use of the axisymmetric theory of unit cell. The main objective of this study is to examine and compare the three dimensional response of stone column reinforced soils with the axisymmetric analysis results. A proposed analytical method, governed by the failure mechanism of a cylindrical cone is also presented. The comparison between these different approaches is studied and evaluated in conjunction with in situ measurements. It is proved that the beneficial effect of this ground improvement technique, especially on the foundation soil with the lower strength characteristics, is more pronounced. Also, it is concluded that due to unit cell theory, the settlement reduction factor is usually under predicted and the failure of the composite system is impossible, even under high applied pressures. The proposed analytical method of the cylindrical cone failure mechanism is proved to be in good agreement with the 3D results.     

Embankments on Soft Soil Reinforced with Stone Columns: Numerical Analysis and Proposal of a New Design Method

A parametric study of an embankment on soft soils reinforced with stone columns is performed using a computer program based on the finite element method. The cylindrical unit cell formulation is used by modeling one column and its surrounding soft soil with confined axisymmetric behaviour. The computer program incorporates the Biot consolidation theory (coupled formulation of the flow and equilibrium equations) with constitutive relations simulated by the p–q–θ critical state model. The following parameters are analysed: the replacement area ratio, the deformability of the column material, the thickness of the soft soil, the deformability of the fill and the friction angle of the column material. Based on the results of this study, a new design method is proposed, relating the settlement improvement factor to the two factors that revealed major influence: the replacement area ratio and the ratio between the deformability of the soft soil and the deformability of the column material.     

碎石桩联合土工格栅复合地基处理湿地软基的机制研究

高原湿地软基的突出特点是含有地质条件很差的泥炭层。采用碎石桩联合土工格栅复合地基处理湿地软基是一个新的尝试。在有限元分析的基础上,给出了碎石桩联合土工格栅复合地基处理高原湿地软基的受力、变形特征与作用机制,结果表明,碎石桩可以加快软基的排水固结,提高地基的承载力,土工格栅的主要作用在于限制路堤的侧向位移和减小差异沉降。     

Modeling of Stone Column-Supported Embankment Under Axi-Symmetric Condition

In the present work, a simplified model has been developed to study the behavior of stone column-supported embankment under axi-symmetric loading condition. The rate of consolidation of stone column-reinforced soft ground under axi-symmetric condition has also been presented in the paper. Mechanical model elements such as Pasternak shear layer, spring–dashpot system are used to model the different components such as granular layer, soft soil, stone columns etc. The governing differential equations are solved by finite difference technique. Parametric study has also been carried out to show the effect of different model variables on the settlement, stress concentration ratio of the foundation system. It is observed that for lower diameter ratio, at a particular time, the degree of consolidation predicted by the present method for axi-symmetric loading condition is almost same or lower than the degree of consolidation obtained by unit cell approach, but as the diameter ratio increases present analysis predicts higher degree of consolidation as compared to the unit cell approach. The maximum settlement decreases as the modular ratio increases and beyond the modular ratio value 30, the reduction rate of settlement decreases.     

Settlement evaluation of soft clay reinforced with stone columns using the equivalent secant modulus

A method is proposed to evaluate settlement of soft clay reinforced with stone columns. Finite element analyses were carried out using 15-noded triangular elements with PLAXIS. A drained analysis was carried out using Mohr?CCoulomb??s criterion for soft clay, stones, and sand. The stress due to column installation has been considered in the analysis. At the interface between the stone column and soft clay, interface elements have been used. The settlement ratio (SR) of the soil has been estimated using the equivalent secant modulus. The results are compared with those available in the literature, and the advantages of the numerical analysis were highlighted. Based on the results of this analysis, the SR decrease with compaction surrounding soft soil, but decrease of SR is mainly due to a stiffer column material in soft clay.     

软粘土层上的油罐差异沉降

根据某一大型油罐软基加固处理工程方案设计和优选需要,按照离心模型相似律,开展了三组模型试验,分别模拟了天然地基、土工合成材料袋装碎石垫层和既在填土层中设置袋装碎石垫层又在淤泥质粘土层设置土工合成材料排水板三种情况,以研究这一加固布置形式对减小高压缩性软土层地基上油罐罐底的差异沉降效果反应。模型油罐地基采用原型土重塑制备,现场土工合成材料袋装碎石采用柔性机织玻璃纤维细管塞装粗砂条模拟,并在不停机运转条件下模拟了多次充放水预压加载。试验结果表明,油罐软弱地基经土工合成材料袋装碎石加固后,罐底总沉降值和差异沉降值均明显小于天然地基情形下对应的沉降值,罐底畸变得到显著减小,就本文所述的土质条件、土层厚度和预压荷载强度,地基经加固处理后,油罐罐底畸变减小了近50 %。最后就土工合成材料在加固油罐地基布置形式的合理性进行了初步探讨。