• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.23 no.8
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• pp.5-16
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• 2007

The stone column method is widely used in Europe as an alternative to conventional pile foundations. Several benefits of using the stone column method include sound performance, low cost, expediency of construction, and liquefaction resistance among others. Recently, geosynthetic-encased stone column approach has been developed to improve its load carrying capacity through increasing confinement effect. Although such a concept has been successfully applied in practice, fundamentals of the method have not been fully explored. This paper presents the results of an investigation on the load carrying capacity of geogrid-encased stone column using a series of 2D finite element analyses. A parametric study was then conducted for influencing factors such as effect of geogrid encasement, encasement length, geogrid strength, among others. The results of the analyses indicated improved short- and long-term load carrying capacity of the geogrid-encased stone column method has advantages over the conventional stone column method without encasing.