Behavior characteristics of geosynthetic-encased stone column under cyclic loading

Abstract

As a new type of soft ground treatment technology, the geosynthetic-encased stone column (GESC) has been extensively used in engineering of roads and highways. In order to investigate the bearing mechanism of GESCs under cyclic loading, a series of experiments and numerical simulations were carried out using the proportional model. This paper described these changes in settlement and pile-soil stress ratio with emphasis on the ratio of length to diameter and the strength of wrapping material. Under the background of model test, a GESC reinforced composite foundation was simulated by the particle flow method. The reliability of the numerical simulation results was verified by the test results. The results demonstrate that GESC can effectively reduce the settlement of composite foundation. As the ratio of length to diameter and the strength of the wrapping material increase, this reduction is more significant. The GESC can effectively decrease the soil stress in composite foundation. The simulation results show the behavior of load transfer and expansion in GESC reinforced composite foundation. The displacement vector of soil particles in composite foundation shows that the failure mode of soil is shear failure. As the number of cycles increases, the range of failure surface expands.