Experimental and numerical modelling of group of geosynthetic-encased stone columns

Abstract

The advantage of utilizing stone columns in very low bearing capacity of soil has been demonstrated as an effective strategy to improve the load bearing characteristics of soils. For stone columns, the load bearing capacity primarily relies upon the circumferential confinement given by the local delicate soils. In this research article, several tests were performed on group of 3 and 4 stone columns having diameter of 40 mm and length of stone columns of 300 mm. Stone columns were tested for both unreinforced and geotextile reinforced stone columns, i.e. encased stone columns and horizontally reinforced stone columns. Reinforced stone columns have been considered to explore the load settlement behaviour and failure mechanism. The principle target of this exploration is to compare the adequacy of encased stoned columns and horizontally reinforced stone columns. Results show that horizontal reinforced stone columns provide better ground improvement in comparison with encased stone columns. Utilizing of geotextile helps reduce failure due to the lateral bulging. Finite element modelling (FEM) has also been performed with Plaxis 2D and 3D software. The FEM results show that the load bearing capacity of reinforced stone columns is better than unreinforced stone columns both depicting failure due to bulging. The validation of experimental and FEM results are found in good agreement within permissible range of variation.