The Behavior of Ordinary and Geosynthetic Encased Stone Columns

Suitable construction area is not always available; thus, a geotechnical engineer needs to modify the ground based on the technical requirements of each project.Collapsible soils make the construction of foundations extremely difficult in its natural state. Such soils exhibit relatively rapid volume compression that occur due to the action of load and the increase in water content.If the foundations rest on collapsible soil, several design techniques may be considered to avoid foundation failure. Among the wide range of ground improvement techniques stone columns have been proved an effective ground improvement technique. However, stone columns failed in strengthening a collapsible soil (because when a vertical load is applied on the top of the column, it bulges outward to failure). Further development in the stone column, like encasing it with geogrid, will be expected to overcome this problem.This book examines the basic assumptions, procedures and results of the numerical analysis in simulating the behaviour of un-encased versus geotextile encased stone column for collapsible soils to support an embankment dam, using commercially available finite element method software PLAXIS.