• Geomechanics and Engineering
• /
• v.12 no.3
• /
• pp.417-439
• /
• 2017

The stone columns are increasingly being used as a soil improvement method for supporting a wide variety of structures (such as road embankment, buildings, storage tanks etc.) especially built on soft soil. Soil improvement by the stone column method overcomes the settlement problem and low stability. Nevertheless, stone column in very soft soils may not be functional due to insufficient lateral confinement. The required lateral confinement can be overcome by encasing the stone column with a suitable geosynthetic. Encasement of stone columns with geogrid is one of the ideal forms of improving the performance of stone columns. This paper presents the results of a series of experimental tests and numerical analysis to investigate the behavior of stone columns with and without geogrid encasement in soft clay deposits. A total of six small scale laboratory tests were carried out using circular footing with diameters of 0.05 m and 0.1 m. In addition, a well-known available software program called PLAXIS was used to numerical analysis, which was validated by the experimental tests. After good validation, detailed of parametric studies were performed. Different parameters such as bearing capacity of stone columns with and without geogrid encasement, stiffness of geogrid encasement, depth of encasement from ground level, diameter of stone columns, internal friction angle of crushed stone and lateral bulging of stone columns were analyzed. As a result of this study, stone column method can be used in the improvement of soft ground and clear development in the bearing capacity of the stone column occurs due to geogrid encasement. Moreover, the bearing capacity is effected from the diameter of the stone column, the angle of internal friction, rigidity of the encasement, and depth of encasement. Lateral bulging is minimized by geogrid encasement and effected from geogrid rigidity, depth of encasement and diameter of the stone column.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
• /
• 2009.03a
• /
• pp.396-404
• /
• 2009

This paper presents the results of numerical investigation on support mechanism of geogrid-encased stone columns for use in soft ground. A number of cases were analyzed using a axial- and 3D stress-pore pressure coupled model that can effectively model construction sequence and drainage as well as reinforcing effects of geogrid-encased stone columns. The results indicated that the geogrid encasement tends to significantly improve the load carrying of a stone column. Also revealed was that such a confinement effect depends on encasement length and stiffness of geogrid. It is also shown that there exist critical encasement length and stiffness of geogrid for a given condition.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
• /
• v.27 no.2
• /
• pp.73-80
• /
• 2011

This paper presents the results of a laboratory investigation on construction method of geogrid encased stone column (GESC). In order to analyze effects of load carrying capacity and geogrid deformation characteristics of GESC, a series of medium scale unconfined compression tests with different overlay methods and reduced model tests were performed. The test results show that the method of overlap provides a simple and effective method of encasement construction. It is also found that geogrid encasement construction using method of overlap has important factor which can be applied to field tests. The geogrid encasement method related to effect of reinforcement is presented by laboratory test results.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
• /
• v.7 no.4
• /
• pp.25-36
• /
• 2008

This paper presents the results of numerical investigation on support mechanism of geogrid-encased stone columns for use in soft ground. A number of cases were analyzed using a axial-and 3D stress-pore pressure coupled model that can effectively model construction sequence and drainage as well as reinforcing effects of geogrid-encased stone columns. The results indicated that the geogrid encasement tends to significantly improve the load carrying of a stone column. Also revealed was that such a confinement effect depends on encasement length and stiffness of geogrid. It is also shown that there exist critical encasement length and stiffness of geogrid for a given condition.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
• /
• v.24 no.12
• /
• pp.93-101
• /
• 2008

This paper presents the results of numerical investigation on support mechanism of geogrid-encased stone columns for use in soft ground improvement. A number of cases were analyzed using a 3D stress-pore pressure coupled model that can effectively model construction sequence and drainage as well as reinforcing effects of geogrid-encased stone columns. The results indicated that the geogrid encasement provides additional confinement effect that reduces vertical stress in the soft ground, thus resulting in less excess pore water pressures and associated settlement. Also revealed was that such a confinement effect depends on encasement length and stiffness of geogrid. It is also shown that there exist critical encasement length and stiffness of geogrid for a given condition.

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

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
• /
• v.23 no.5
• /
• pp.15-27
• /
• 2007

This paper deals with the bearing capacity behaviour of geosynthetic-reinforced stone column(GRSC) constructed in soft ground, as part of an investigation regarding the applicability of GRSC in Korea. In this study, two-dimensional finite element analyses were performed to investigate the effect of relevant design factors on the bearing capacity behaviour. The parametric study is performed for various influencing factors. The results indicated that the geogrid encasement tends to significantly improve the load carrying capacity of a stone column. Also found were that the geogrid encasement length and its stiffness significantly affect the load carrying capacity behaviour of GRSC, and that the encasement length of three times the stone column diameter is sufficient in mobilizing the full reinforcement effect. Practical implications of the findings are discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
• /
• v.25 no.11
• /
• pp.75-86
• /
• 2009

This paper presents the results of a numerical investigation on load carrying capacity of geogrid-encased stone columns to use as load carrying column(s) supporting a foundation load. A validated 3D stress-pore pressure coupled model that can effectively show rapid drainage capability of stone columns and encasement effect of geogrid was adopted and a parametric study was carried out on a number of influencing factors. It is shown that the geogrid encased stone columns can be effectively used as foundation load supporting columns in soft ground. The results of numerical investigation were presented so that the relationship between the load carrying capacity of geogrid-encased stone columns and the influencing factors can be identified. Practical implications of the findings are also discussed.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• v.33 no.2
• /
• pp.643-653
• /
• 2013

Recently, there are an increasing number of studies on the method of wrapping the outer wall of granular piles with geosynthetic fibers such as geotextile or geogrid that has a certain level of tensile strength as an alternative method for the ground improvement techniques. In this study, triaxial compression tests are performed on the sand and clay specimen encased with various textiles to evaluate the reinforcing effect with regard to the tensile strength of the textile. Furthermore, triaxial compression tests are performed on the clay specimen inserted by sand only and sand encased with geosynthetics to compare behavioral differences between the conventional sand compaction pile and geosynthetic encased sand pile with regard to the replacement ratio, ${\alpha}_s$ and the tensile strength of the geosynthetics. Based on the experimental results, the strength enhancement due to the textile is affected by the longitudinal tensile strength rather than the transverse one of the applied textile. The effect of the confinement by the textile encasement results in the large increase of the cohesions. The overall behaviors, such as shear strength, pore pressure parameter at failure and stress ratio, of the geosynthetic encased sand pile is quite different from those of the conventional sand compaction pile.