Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Stone Column
Stone Column
Dr. M. Hafez
soil88@gmail.com
Stone Column / Vibro Replacement Process
SCOPE OF STUDY
What is Stone column?
Studies through small scale models have shown that end bearing
capacity and settlement behavior of a single stone column is
drastically under influence by the method of applying the load.
Less bulging and greater ultimate load capacity is a result of
distribution of the load over a large strip footing and also the support
of stone-column.
It can make the surrounding soil much stronger to tolerate larger
vertical and lateral forces due to larger capacity of nearby stress soil.
Failure mechanism of Single Stone-Column
Failure mechanism of Single Stone-Column
Where:
D=diameter of compacted stone column
s=center-to-center spacing of stone-column
= a constant dependent on the pattern of stone-column used; for a square
pattern and for equilateral triangle pattern .
Basic Relationships for Design:
Stress concentration:
Concentration of stress on stone column and reduction of stress on
near by soil.
The reason can be interpreted as , since displacement of soil and
stone column are assumed to be equal, the stiffer material absorbs
more stress, as here its stone column.
Basic Relationships for Design:
concentration factor n defined as:
Where:
=stress in stone column
=stress in the surrounding cohesive soil
Due to satisfaction of vertical stress, average stress which needs to be existed over a
unit cell at a given depth should be as follows:
Basic Relationships for Design:
Using the stress concentration factor to solve the equation above with all other terms
defined previously:
As where and are the ratio of stresses in clay and stone respectively to the average
stresses in the tributary area.
Ultimate load analysis of a single stone column:
Confining stress usually in these type of analysis are taken as ultimate passive
resistance of soil.as stone columns introduces bulges to the surrounding soil,
ultimate passive resistance starts to be mobilized.
Due to classical theory of plasticity confining stress and vertical stress in a Triaxial
state of failure can be expressed as follows:
Where, is the angle of internal friction of stone column and is the coefficient of
passive earth pressure denotes by ().
Ultimate load analysis of a single stone column:
Cavity expansion theory:
This theory is based on this fact that as bulging happens around the stone
Colum, passive resistance of soil starts to progress until it reaches an ultimate
value.
This theory considers the model as an infinite cylinder which can be expanded
through its symmetric axis.
Where:
: Ultimate lateral undrained stress
: Total in-situ lateral stress
: Elastic Modulus of soil
C: Undrained shear strength
: Poissons Ratio
Ultimate load analysis of a single stone column:
Where:
C: cohesion
q: mean isotropic stress ( ) at the equivalent failure depth.
: Cavity expansion factors. (Fig 16)
Ultimate load analysis of a single stone column:
- Cavity expansion factors are functions of angle of friction of surrounding soil and
rigidity index .
Where:
: Rigidity index.
E: Modulus of elasticity
C: cohesion of soil.
: Poissons
q: mean stress within the zone of failure.
Ultimate load analysis of a single stone column:
Ultimate load analysis of a single stone column:
Where:
is the composite angle of internal friction and is composite cohesion on
shear surface beneath the foundation; is area replacement ratio and is
stress concentration factor for stone.
Ultimate loading capacity of a group of stone columns:
Failure surface makes an angle with the foundation, where the parameter
for the composite soil is:
And:
Ultimate loading capacity of a group of stone columns:
To determine ultimate lateral pressure which finally will help significantly to
calculate ultimate bearing capacity, it is important to assume an infinitely long
footing for a saturated clay layer with no angular internal friction; classical earth
pressure theory will represent that:
Where:
is lateral confining pressure, is saturated or wet unit weight of soil foundation
width, inclination of failure surface provided by equation above and c as undrained
shear strength within the reinforced soil.
Ultimate load analysis of a group stone column:
Assumptions:
(1) Unit cell concept is valid
(2) vertical load applied to unit cell has to be carried by soil and
stone.
(3) vertical displacement of soil and stone is the same.
(4) vertical load is distributed uniformly along stone column.
(5) settlement beneath the stone column usually can be neglected due
to small value after calculation.
Settlement analysis in presence of stone columns:
The change in vertical stress in the clay, due to applied vertical stress is:
Where:
primary consolidation settlement occurring over a distance of H of stone
column treated ground, H vertical height of stone column treated ground
over which settlement are being calculated, average initial effective stress
in clay layer, change in stress in clay layer due to externally applied load,
compression index from 1D consolidation test, initial void ratio.
Settlement analysis in presence of stone columns:
Ratio of improved ground settlement over untreated ground settlement for
normally consolidated clay is as follows:
For very large and relatively very small, the ratio above will approaches
to:
Settlement analysis in presence of stone columns:
Graph 9 represents the equation above graphically, hence the results of
this graph is unconservative and resultantly is suitable for roughly
estimation for preliminary investigations.
Settlement analysis in presence of stone columns:
Method to Estimate Settlement Reduction Using
Stone Columns in Cohesive Soils
I KNOW , YOU ARE TIRED ,
BUT W8 JUST A LITTLE BIT
MORE PLEASE
3 CASE STUDIES
Where:
q: ultimate stress which stone column carries.
c: undrained shear strength of surrounding soil
Design based on ultimate bearing capacity criteria:
Solution :
The height of embankment which applies the safe loading to the unit cell
can be calculated as follows:
Design based on ultimate bearing capacity criteria:
Solution :
6-commentary:
Settlement of the fill is significant and should be calculated.
in this example the very soft clay at depth of 6 meters, controls the
load which needs to be applied to the stone column.
Use of an ultimate lateral stress of 9c acting on the stone column
hence give a conservative but realistic estimation of ultimate
resistance regarding bulging that can be developed.
Due to wide guess of fill, stress on stone column does not decrease
with depth due to lateral spreading of stress.
Design based on group ultimate bearing capacity criteria:
Briefing:
Stone column were used to reduce settlement of a foundation 4.1 by
3.2 meters squared.
Determine the ultimate and safe bearing capacity of 10 stone column
groups.
The material properties and geometries are illustrated in figure below.
Modular ratio () assumed to be 6.in general it is not recommended to
use spacing less than 5 ft.
Design based on group ultimate bearing capacity criteria:
Solution :
1-calculate area replacement ratio ()
Design based on group ultimate bearing capacity criteria:
Solution :
2-determine stress concentration in stone column:
Solution :
3-calculate the composite shear strength within the stone column group:
Design based on group ultimate bearing capacity criteria:
Solution :
4-Calculate in surrounding clay of stone column using Vesic cavity
expansion theory:
Since clay is stiff, no organic is existed and PI=30 which represents
young modulus of 11c (E=11c) for calculating the rigidity index.(
The average diameter of foundation is
The depth of failure wedge is then
stiff clay is normally consolidated and and
.
Design based on group ultimate bearing capacity criteria:
Solution :
4- ( cont.)
Now calculate the rigidity index:
Design based on group ultimate bearing capacity criteria:
Solution :
5-calculate the ultimate vertical load and stress that can be applied
over the rigid foundation:
And finally the ultimate load that can be applied is: ( FOS=2)
Design based on group ultimate bearing capacity criteria:
Solution :
6-commentary:
Settlement analysis may control the design process.so it is inevitable to
check settlement criteria and an example regarding the basic procedure is
demonstrated in the next illustration. The average loading applied to
foundation is, the probable distribution of load between stone column and
for concentration factor ( n) of 2 ,would be :
Design based on group ultimate bearing capacity criteria:
Solution :
6-commentary: ( cont.)
Since ultimate stress that stiff clay can bear is 6.2c=6.2 ksf, and
comparing this value with the current site condition, clay stress is not
excessive.
As discussed in previous sections, the ratio of settlement of a treated
ground to an unimproved ground is , hence for the condition analyzed 25
percent reduction in settlement due to initial condition is expected. For
this site condition use of a larger foundation is recommended due to
uncritical conditions.
Design based on settlement criteria:
Briefing:
Calculation of settlement in in soft clay site reinforced with stone
columns and loaded by a wide fill. Primary settlement is calculated
using Equilibrium method. Subsurface conditions are as follows:
1- 20 ft.(6.1 m) of gray , soft silty clay
2- Firm to dense sand
3- Groundwater table is at the surface
4- Equilateral triangular pattern of stone column is selected.
5-Spacing between stone columns is 6.5 ft.( 2 m)
6- The diameter of stone column is estimated to be 3.5 ft. ( 1.07 m)
7-Sand blanket of 2.5 ft. (0.7 m) is to be placed over soft silty clay for a
working platform and drainage blanket.
Design based on settlement criteria:
Solution:
Equilibrium Method:
The average stress exerted by 2.5 ft. sand blanket layer and 12.5 ft.
structural fill on top of stone column is approximately:
If the site was not under treatment, primary settlement would have been
45.2 in.
Design based on settlement criteria: