Performance of Encased Silica-Manganese Slag Stone Columns in Soft Marine Clay

Abstract

Stone columns are the most suitable and economical ground improvement technique for soft soils. Stone columns accelerate the consolidation process, thereby increase the stiffness of the soil. This increase may not be sufficient because of the less lateral confinement, which leads to excessive bulging. The strength of the composite soil can also be increased further by encasing the column with geotextile. In this paper, model tests were conducted on end-bearing stone columns with geotextile encasement and compared with the unreinforced (plain) stone columns. The stone columns were prepared by placing the silica-manganese slag, sand and were reinforced with geotextile with different encasement lengths of D, 2D, 3D, and 4D (D is the stone column diameter; i.e., 5 cm). The tests demonstrated that the engineering behavior of the soil was improved by introducing the silica-manganese slag (when compared with conventional stone columns) and also with encasement. Bulging can also be reduced by providing encasement beyond the zone of bulging.

A Review of Soil Stabilization Using Stone Columns Technique

“…A. Mohamad Ismail et al 2011;Siva Gowri Prasad et al 2016;Zahmatkesh et al 2010). It was agreed by many researchers who evaluated the effectiveness of filler materials and found their positive effect significantly in improving soil properties (George et al 2016;Nazaruddin et al 2013;Palaniappan et al 2013;Prasad et al 2015). The column material size is chosen based on the ratio of the column diameter (D) to the column material size (d).…”