PRACTICAL MODELLING OF STONE-COLUMN REINFORCED GROUND

The acceleration of consolidation by stone columns was mostly analysed within the framework of a basic unit cell model (i.e. a cylindrical soil body around a column). A method of converting the axisymmetric unit cell into the equivalent plane-strain model would be required for two-dimensional numerical modelling of multi-column field applications. This paper proposes two practical simplified conversion methods to obtain the equivalent plane-strain model of the unit cell, and investigates their applicability to multi-column reinforced ground. In the first conversion method, the soil permeability is matched according to an analytical equation, whereas in the second method, the column width is matched based on the equivalence of column area. The validity of these methods is tested by comparison with the numerical results of unit-cell simulations and with the field data from an embankment case history. The results show that for the case of linear-elastic material modelling, both methods produce reasonably accurate long-term consolidation settlements, whereas for the case of elasto-plastic material modelling, the second method is preferable as the first one gives erroneously lower long-term settlements, where plastic yielding of stone column are ignored.