Geosynthetic-encased stone columns: Analytical calculation model

Abstract

This paper presents a newly developed design method for non-encased and encased stone columns. The developed analytical closed-form solution is based on previous solutions, initially developed for non-encased columns and for non-dilating rigid-plastic column material. In the present method, the initial stresses in the soil/column are taken into account, with the column considered as an elasto-plastic material with constant dilatancy, the soil as an elastic material and the geosynthetic encasement as a linear-elastic material. To check the validity of the assumptions and the ability of the method to give reasonable predictions of settlements, stresses and encasement forces, comparative elasto-plastic finite element analyses have been performed. The agreement between the two methods is very good, which was the reason that the new method was used to generate a parametric study in order to investigate various parameters, such as soil/column parameters, replacement ratio, load level and geosynthetic encasement stiffness on the behaviour of the improved ground. The results of this study show the influence of key parameters and provide a basis for the rational predictions of settlement response for various encasement stiffnesses, column arrangements and load levels. The practical use of the method is illustrated through the design chart, which enables preliminary selection of column spacing and encasement stiffness to achieve the desired settlement reduction for the selected set of the soil/column parameters.