Vibro Replacement/ Vibro Replacement/

Stones Columns Stones Columns

Advantages
• Stone Columns are designed to reduce
settlements of compressible soil layers in Stone Columns are formed by
order to be able to build most structures inserting a vibratory probe to
with shallow footings and slab-on-grades incorporate granular material
on very soft soil; into the ground and create verti-
• When applicable, their draining character- cal inclusions with high stiffness,
istics result in an increase in the time rate shear strength and draining char-
of consolidation settlement in soft cohe- acteristics.
sive soil; Two types of feeding Process
• Because they are made of compacted (top or bottom)are used with
granular material, no curing period is either air (dry method) or water
necessary and no cut-off to the shallow (wet method) jetting fluids.
footing grades are required as the excava- Under uniformly loaded struc-
tion of the footing can immediately follow tures such as embankments and
the installation of the stone columns slabs-on-grade, Stone Columns
down to the required elevation; are installed on a regular grid
• High production rates; spacing. In this case, a load trans-
fer platform is designed and
Ras Laffan Power & Desalination Plant - Ras laffan (QATAR) • Stone Columns are also well-adapted to installed between the top of the
the mitigation of liquefaction potential columns and the structure. The
thanks to the combined effect/advantage Stone Columns installation
of their draining potential and the results in a significant reduction
increase of shear strength and stiffness of of the total and differential settle-
the improved soils. ments. Stone Columns can also
be installed as a group to support
Applications isolated loads (shallow spread
• Industrial warehouses and commercial footings) or directly under linear
buildings ; loadings such as strip footing or
retaining walls. In this case,
• Condominium, apartment buildings, town- Stone Columns increase the bear-
houses and single-family residential ing capacity of the soil while
developments; reducing the magnitude of settle-
• Reclaimed platforms (harbours, container ment.
terminals);
This technology is well suited for
• Sewage treatment plants;
the improvement of soft to very
• Railway and roadway embankments; soft soils (sillty sand, clays, silts,
heterogeneous fill…). However,
• Retaining walls;
when the surrounding soils pres-
• Liquefaction mitigation and building ent a risk of long term degrada-
support in seismic areas. tion of their geotechnical charac-
teristics (organic soils, very soft
clays, peat…) with very limited
lateral confinement, Stone
Columns should not be used for
settlement reduction or bearing
capacity improvement.
Regional Head Office
P.O Box: 36750, Dubai - United Arab Emirates
Tel: +971 4 2925 700 Fax:+971 4 2925 710
E-mail: tender@menard-vibro.ae
www.menard-vibro.ae
 Vibro Replacement/Stones Columns

Implementation and methods

Stone Columns are formed by inserting an hydraulic or electric vibroflot

Off-shore Stone Columns
into the soil using water as jetting fluid for the wet method or a
pressure chamber equipment to inject air for the dry method. - Dunkirk Harbour (FRANCE).
Methods and jetting fluids are defined according to soil conditions
and treatment depths.

Bottom feed Method

Penetration of the probe Backfilling and compaction Completed column
assisted by jetting fluids of the granular backfill

1) Under combined effect of
sustained vibrations, its
own weight and the pull-
down force, the vibratory
probe penetrates the soil
down to the prescribed
depth or down to refusal.
During penetration, the
soil is displaced laterally.
2) As the probe is lifted, the
ballast is incorporated
either by gravity or by a
shovel depending on the
method. The process is
faciltated by the continuous
injection of jetting fluid.
The aggregated are inserted
and compacted by extrac-
tion and repenetration of
the vibrating probe through
repeated incremental lifts of
0.50 to 1cm , each cycle
being repeated till the probe
reaches the surface.
3) The diameter of the
Stones Columns depends
on the properties of the
surrounding soil : in softer
soils, the compaction
process results in higher
lateral expansion of the
columns. Over the length of
the entire column, variable
diameter could thus be
created due to variable
layers with different soil
conditions.

Top feed Method