Experimental studies on single reinforced stone columns with various positions of geotextile

摘要

Stone columns are used as a technique for improving the strength and enhancing the bearing capacity of soft soils. Due to the low confinement of the soil typically surrounding the stone columns, reinforcement materials like geotextile are needed to improve such weakness. Although the technique is now well established, little research has been undertaken on the use of various positions of the reinforcement materials. In this paper, some small-scale laboratory tests were performed on reinforced floating stone columns with diameters of 80 mm and 100 mm and the length of 400 mm and 500 mm, respectively, to study the influence of various positions of geotextile. They were included vertical encasement stone columns, horizontal reinforcement stone columns and combined vertical-horizontal encasement stone columns. The impacts of the different diameters of the columns, the length of the reinforcement and the spaces of the reinforcement have been studied. Based on the results, by increasing the diameter of the vertical encasement stone column, the benefit of encasement decreases, while in horizontal and vertical-horizontal encasement stone column, the performance of the reinforcement increases. Moreover, the load-carrying capacity of combined vertical-horizontal encasement stone columns increases considerably in comparison with the other types.