STUDIES ON THE VARIOUS MODULUS OF

GEOTEXTILE ENCASING STONE COLUMN

Khairul Asyraf bin Khairuddin

2011871978
Ec2208H

Encased Stone Column

Stone column is commonly used as a ground

improvement method.
Advantage: Cost effective, easy to install
Consist of crushed aggregates forming a
column inside a ground
Encased stone column is stone column
reinforced by the geotextile layer which act as
an encasement.
Geotextile layer come with different value of
stiffness.
This studies focused on investigating impact
of different value stiffness of geotextile to the
performance of encased stone column as a

Introduction:

Installation of Encased Stone Column

Sources: (Lee et al., 2008).

Plaxis 2d ver 8.2

Finite element software used to simulate

geotechnical related problem.
Example: earthquake, tunnel, pile,
embankment, drainage
Similar software: Sage-crisp

Problem Statement
Software (Plaxis? Sage
Performance
Crisp?)

Limit of the software (Performance

wise)

Software 2d version or 3d version?

(Plaxis comes with 3d and 2d version)

Objective
I.

II.

III.
IV.

V.

To determine effective vertical stress of composite

encased stone column with various modulus of
geotextile along primary consolidation using PLAXIS.
To determine the settlement of composite encased
stone column along primary consolidation using
PLAXIS.
To determine excess pore pressure of surrounding
soil along primary consolidation using PLAXIS.
To relate effective vertical stress with vertical
displacement along primary consolidation using
PLAXIS.
To determine hoop force surrounding stone column
along primary consolidation using PLAXIS.

Scope of Work

Modulus Value of Geotexiles : 200, 400, 600, 800 and 1000 kN/m

Plaxis Version 8.2 d

Model used-Mohr-Colomb

Axisymmetry FEM model

15 triangular node element

Literature Review

Malarvizhi&Ilamparuthi(2010)- Susceptibilty of encased

stone column to bulging is lower than ordinary stone
column.

Aminaton et al(2013)-The higher stiffness of geotexile cause

reducement in bearing capacity of soil.

Ambily&Gandhi(2004)- Both theoratical(Plaxis) and

experimental result are about the same and does not have
big difference.

Gap Of Research
No

Researcher(s)

Objective

Year

Malarvizhi and

To evaluate mechanism

2010

Ilamparuthi

of

Difference

Name
1

Load is applied at both soil and

encased stone column.

encased stone column

Malarvizhi and Ilamparuthi only

applied load at column area.

Ellouze and

To predict the

2009

This research studies only on

Bouassida

settlement by a group

single encased stone column but

of stone column

Ellouze and Bouassida studies

about group of stone column.

Malarvizhi and

Analysis of

Ilamparuthi

encapsulated stone
column using
numerically analysis.

2008

Load is applied at both soil and

encased stone column.
Malarvizhi and Ilamparuthi only
applied load at column area.

Aminaton Marto et

To analyse the

2013

Aminaton Marto et al. only focused

al.

performance of

on bearing capacity of the encased

reinforced stone column

stone column. This research widen

using finite element

the studies about encased stone

method.

column by studying impact of

settlement with time, excess pore
pressure with time, and effective
stress with time.

Lee et al.

Field Load Tests of

2008

Lee et al. only study on load

Encased Stone Columns

settlement behaviour and lateral

in Soft Ground

displacement of the encased stone

column. This study covers lot more
such as excess pore pressure,
effective stress, and hoop force.

Theoretical Background

The higher the modulus values of geotextile, the

more increase the hoop force.
The higher the stress absorb by the soil, the
settlement occurred at the soil increased.
Settlement increased rapidly and then decrease
gradually as time passed.
Effective stress will increase as time passed but
the increment will be more linear at latter stage.
Excess pore pressure will increase rapidly during
plastic stage and will gradually decrease at
consolidation stage until it reaches the value
near zero.

Methodology
Plaxis Input

Plaxis Output

Plaxis Curve

Result and Discussion

Settlement versus time analysis

Excess pore pressure versus time analysis

Effective vertical stress versus time analysis

at soil

Effective vertical stress versus time analysis

at ESC

Effective stress displacement relationship

Hoop force analysis

Geotextile Stiffness

Hoop Force

Geotextile Stiffness

Deformation(Ux)

(kN/m^2)

(kN/m)

(kN/m^2)

(mm)

200

2.08

200

0.0412

400

2.42

400

0.0142

600

2.98

600

0.0127

800

3.40

800

0.0112

1000

3.68

1000

0.0100

Conclusion

Stiffness of stone column geogrid encasement effect the

displacement of the soil. Increase the stiffness of geotextile
encasing the stone column will decrease the settlement of soil
around the stone column.
Excess pore pressure for soil around the encased stone column will
increase rapidly during the plastic stage and will start to decrease
gradually during the consolidation stage until it achieve value near
to zero which means that the soil had achieved complete
consolidation and all water had being squeezed out from the soil.
Effective stress at the soil around the encased stone column will
decrease if the stiffness of the geotextile encasing the stone column
increased. This is due to large proportion of load carried by the
encased stone column. For effective stress at the encased stone
column, increase in stiffness of the geotextile encasing the stone
column will increase the effective stress at the stone column.

Increase in stiffness of geotextile encasing the stone column will improve

the bearing capacity of the soil. Effective stress versus displacement
graph showing the sign of improvement as the geotextile of the stone
column encasement increase. This means that the encased stone column
can carried higher load without failing or bulging when its bearing
capacity increase.
Hoop force induces by geotextile increase as the stiffness of geotextile
increase. This in turn provide more confinement pressure to the stone
column resulting the stone column to increase in bearing capacity and
reduce the susceptibility of the stone column to bulge.
Horizontal displacement of the soil decrease as stiffness of geotextile
increase. Increase in stiffness of geotextile encasement will increase the
hoop force produce by the geotextile which provide more confinement
pressure and thus reduce the lateral displacement occurred at the
encased stone column. Decrease in lateral displacement of the encased
stone column reduces the load transfer from the stone column to the soil
which results in settlement reduction of the soil.
Improvement of stiffness encasement for the existing encasement of stone
column should be in increment more than 1000 to give more significant
improvement than the existing encasement. Increment below than 1000
will give little impact to the improvement of soil.

References
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