Influence of gravel density in clay reinforced with stone columns. Laboratory study

摘要

Small scale tests were performed in the laboratory to study the influence of the density of columns in the deformation and radial consolidation around end-bearing columns installed in soft soils. For this purpose, the behavior of a horizontal slice of a representative unit cell formed by the column and the surrounding soil was analyzed. Two column densities were tested, with a relative density of D_r =100% [1] and D_r=30% Gravel was used for the central column and kaolin clay for the natural soil Some interesting results are the vertical strain reduction of approximately 15% for columns with D_r =30% and 25% for columns with 100%, and the stress concentration factor between 4 and 15 for D_r=100% and 3-7 for D_r =30%. The experimental results have been compared with some of the theoretical solutions more used in the study of stone columns behavior.