• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.133-148
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• 2014

An experimental study is carried out to evaluate the performance of Lime mortar-Well graded Soil (Lime-WS) columns for the improvement of soft soils. Tests are conducted on a column of 100 mm diameter and 600 mm length surrounded by soft soil in different area ratios. Experiments are performed either with the entire area loading to evaluate the load - settlement behavior of treated grounds and only a column area loading to find the limiting axial stress of the column. A series of tests are carried out in soaking condition to investigate the influence of moisture content on the load - settlement behavior of specimens. In order to compare the behavior of Lime-WS columns with Conventional Stone (CS) columns as well as Geogrid Encased Stone (GES) columns, the behavior of these columns have been also considered in the present study. Remarkable improvement in the behavior of soft soil is observed due to the installation of Lime-WS columns and the performance of these columns is significantly enhanced by increasing the area ratio. The results show that CS columns are not suitable as a soil improvement technique for extremely soft soils and should be enhanced by encasing the column or replaced by rigid stone columns.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.56 no.4
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• pp.507-534
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• 2015

The present work investigates the behavior of the embankment models resting on soft soil reinforced with ordinary and stone columns encased with geogrid. Model tests were performed with different spacing distances between stone columns and two lengths to diameter ratios (L/d) of the stone columns, in addition to different embankment heights. A total number of 42 model tests were carried out on a soil with undrianed shear strength $${\sim_\sim}10kPa$$. The models consist of stone columns embankment at s/d equal to 2.5, 3 and 4 with L/d ratio equal 5 and 8. Three embankment heights; 200 mm, 250 mm and 300 mm were tested for both tests of ordinary (OSC) and geogrid encased stone columns (ESC). Three earth pressure cells were used to measure directly the vertical effective stress on column at the top of the middle stone column under the center line of embankment and on the edge stone column for all models while the third cell was placed at the base of embankment between two columns to measure the vertical effective stress in soft soil directly. The performance of stone columns embankments relies upon the ability of the granular embankment material to arch over the 'gaps' between the stone columns spacing. The results showed that the ratio of the embankment height to the clear spacing between columns (h/s-d) is a key parameter. It is found that (h/s-d)<1.2 and 1.4 for OSC and ESC, respectively; (h is the embankment height, s is the spacing between columns and d is the diameter of stone columns), no effect of arching is pronounced, the settlement at the surface of the embankment is very large, and the stress acting on the subsoil is virtually unmodified from the nominal overburden stress. When $(h/s-d){\geq}2.2$ for OSC and ESC respectively, full arching will occur and minimum stress on subsoil between stone columns will act, so the range of critical embankment height will be 1.2 (h/sd) to 2.2 (h/s-d) for both OSC and ESC models.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.95-107
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• 2016

Deep soil mixing with cement and cement-lime mixtures has been widely used for decades to improve the strength of soils. In this study, small-scale laboratory model tests of polymer columns in soft clayey soil were conducted to evaluate the feasibility of using various polymeric compounds as binders in deep soil mixing. Floating and end bearing polymer columns were used to examine the load-settlement relationship of improved soft clayey soils for various area replacement ratios. The results indicate that polymer columns show good promise for use in deep mixing applications.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.5 no.6
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• pp.679-702
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• 2013

During an earthquake, soils filter and send out the shaking to the building and simultaneously it has the role of bearing the building vibrations and transmitting them back to the ground. In other words, the ground and the building interact with each other. Hence, soil-structure interaction (SSI) is a key parameter that affects the performance of buildings during the earthquakes and is worth to be taken into consideration. Columns are one of the most crucial elements in RC buildings that play an important role in stability of the building and must be able to dissipate energy under seismic loads. Recent earthquakes showed that formation of plastic hinges in columns is still possible as a result of strong ground motion, despite the application of strong column-weak beam concept, as recommended by various design codes. Energy is dissipated through the plastic deformation of specific zones at the end of a member without affecting the rest of the structure. The formation of a plastic hinge in an RC column in regions that experience inelastic actions depends on the column details as well as soil-structure interaction (SSI). In this paper, 854 different scenarios have been analyzed by inelastic time-history analyses to predict the nonlinear behavior of RC columns considering soil-structure interaction (SSI). The effects of axial load, height over depth ratio, main period of soil and structure as well as different characteristics of earthquakes, are evaluated analytically by finite element methods and the results are compared with corresponding experimental data. Findings from this study provide a simple expression to estimate plastic hinge length of RC columns including soil-structure interaction.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.567-581
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• 2023

Enhanced vertical load capacity of the ground reinforced with the stone columns drew great attention by the researchers as it deals with many of the geotechnical difficulties associated with the weak ground. Recently, it has been found that the stone columns are also prone to fail under the shear load when employed beneath the embankments or the foundations susceptible to lateral loads. In this study, the effect of various encasement conditions on the lateral deflection of stone columns is investigated. A method of dual layers of encasement has been introduced and its the effect on lateral load capacity of the stone columns has been compared with those of the single encased stone column and the un-encased stone columns. Large shear box tests were utilised to generate the shear deformation on the soil system under various normal pressure conditions. The stiffness of the soil-stone column combined system has been compared for various cases of encasement conditions with different diameters. When subjected to lateral deformation, the encased columns outperformed the un-encased stone columns installed in loose sand. Shear stress resistance is up to 1.7 times greater in dual-layered, encased columns than in unencased columns. Similarly, the secant modulus increases as the condition changes from an unencased stone column to single-layer encasement and then to dual-layer encasement, indicating an improvement in the overall soil-stone column system.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.75-86
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• 2020

This study aims to simulate the stabilization process of fibrous peat samples using end-bearing Cement Deep Mixing (CDM) columns by three area improvement ratios of 13.1% (TS-2), 19.6% (TS-3) and 26.2% (TS-3). It also focuses on the determination of approximate stress distribution between CDM columns and untreated fibrous peat soil. First, fibrous peat samples were mechanically stabilized using CDM columns of different area improvement ratio. Further, the ultimate bearing capacity of a rectangular foundation rested on the stabilized peat was calculated in stress-controlled condition. Then, this process was simulated via a FEM-based model using Plaxis 3-D foundation and the numerical modelling results were compared with experimental findings. In the numerical modelling stage, the behaviour of fibrous peat was simulated based on hardening soil (HS) model and Mohr-Coulomb (MC) model, while embedded pile element was utilized for CDM columns. The results indicated that in case of untreated peat HS model could predict the behaviour of fibrous peat better than MC model. The comparison between experimental and numerical investigations showed that the stress distribution between soil (S) and CDM columns (C) were 81%C-19%S (TS-2), 83%C-17%S (TS-3) and 89%C-11%S (TS-4), respectively. This implies that when the area improvement ratio is increased, the share of the CDM columns from final load was increased. Finally, the calculated bearing capacity factors were compared with results on the account of empirical design methods.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.385-396
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• 2022

The accurate determination of the subgrade reaction modulus (K_s) of soil is an important factor for geotechnical engineers. This study estimated the K_s of soft soil improved with floating deep cement mixing (DCM) columns. A novel prediction model was developed that emphasizes the accuracy of identifying the most significant parameters of K_s. Several multi-layer perceptron (MLP) models that were trained using the Levenberg Marquardt (LM) backpropagation method were developed to estimate K_s. The models were trained using a reliable database containing the results of 36 physical modelling tests. The input parameters were the undrained shear strength of the DCM columns, undrained shear strength of soft soil, area improvement ratio and length-to-diameter ratio of the DCM columns. Grey wolf optimization (GWO) was coupled with the MLPs to improve the performance indices of the MLPs. Sensitivity tests were carried out to determine the importance of the input parameters for prediction of K_s. The results showed that both the MLP-LM and MLP-GWO methods showed high ability to predict K_s. However, it was shown that MLP-GWO (R = 0.9917, MSE = 0.28 (MN/m²/m)) performed better than MLP-LM (R =0.9126, MSE =6.1916 (MN/m²/m)). This proves the greater reliability of the proposed hybrid model of MLP-GWO in approximating the subgrade reaction modulus of soft soil improved with floating DCM columns. The results revealed that the undrained shear strength of the soil was the most effective factor for estimation of K_s.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.505-520
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• 2022

In recent years, geotextile-encased gravel columns (usually called stone columns) have become a popular method to increasing soil shear strength, decreasing the settlement, acceleration of the rate of consolidation, reducing the liquefaction potential and increasing the bearing capacity of foundations. The behavior of improved loose base-soil with gravel columns under shear loading and the shear stress-horizontal displacement curves got from large scale direct shear test are of great importance in understanding the performance of this method. In the present study, by performing 36 large-scale direct shear tests on sandy base-soil with different fine-content of zero to 30% in both not improved and improved with gravel columns, the effect of the presence of gravel columns in the loose soils were investigated. The results were used to predict the shear stress-horizontal displacement curve of these samples using support vector machines (SVM). Variables such as the non-plastic fine content of base-soil (FC), the area replacement ratio of the gravel column (Arr), the geotextile encasement and the normal stress on the sample were effective factors in the shear stress-horizontal displacement curve of the samples. The training and testing data of the model showed higher power of SVM compared to multilayer perceptron (MLP) neural network in predicting shear stress-horizontal displacement curve. After ensuring the accuracy of the model evaluation, by introducing different samples to the model, the effect of different variables on the maximum shear stress of the samples was investigated. The results showed that by adding a gravel column and increasing the Arr, the friction angle (ϕ) and cohesion (c) of the samples increase. This increase is less in base-soil with more FC, and in a proportion of the same Arr, with increasing FC, internal friction angle and cohesion decreases.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 1997.05a
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• pp.25-29
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• 1997

In many solute transport studies, either flux or resident concentration has been used. Choice of the concentration mode was dependent on the monitoring device in solute displacement experiments. It would be questionable, however. to accept the equivalency in the solute transport parameters between flux and resident concentrations in structured soils exhibiting preferential movement of solute. In this study, we investigate how they differ in the monitored breakthrough curves (BTCs) and transport parameters for a given boundary and flow condition by performing solute displacement experiments on a number of undisturbed soil columns. Both flux and resident concentrations have been simultaneously obtained by monitoring the effluent and resistance of the Horizontally-positioned TDR probes. The study reveals that soil columns having relatively high flux densities exhibited great differences in the degree of peak concentration and travel time of peak between flux and resident concentrations. The peak concentration in flux mode was several times higher than that in resident one. This was mainly due to the bypassing of solute through soil macropores.

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