Effect of Area Replacement Ratio on Settlement Behaviour of Floating Stone Column

Abstract

This research aims to examine the effect of the area replacement ratio of the floating stone column on settlement behaviour. Soft soil can be particularly challenging in the construction industry due to its low load- bearing capacity, which means it cannot support heavy structures or loads and may settle over time when the soil consolidates under the weight of the structure. Most construction projects use end-bearing columns compared to floating stone columns due to the double-layered consolidation issue because it is hard to predict the settlement behaviour. This experimental investigation employed a small-scale unit cell model tank to investigate the influence area of a single column. To reach the objective, time vs. settlement laboratory tests were performed with the different area replacement ratios of the floating stone column as 10%, 15%, 23%, and 33% with a fixed length of 400 mm (end bearing column) and 240 mm (floating column) of the stone column and unreinforced clay (control sample) by applying uniform loading to determine the resulting settlement behaviour. This study revealed that increasing the area replacement ratio of the column decreased the settlement of the floating stone column. The settlement between the end bearing and floating stone column shows an insignificant difference. The experimental findings presented in this study contributed to the understanding of the settlement behavior of floating stone columns. This research is very useful in the geotechnical engineering industry, where ground improvement work in the form of a stone column is necessary.