CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1

Introduction

Many failures of buildings are causes by instability of the soil. Usually engineers focused on the
quality of material and less focused on the condition of soil. There are three types of soil, soft
soil, medium soil and hard soil. Soft soil is the most dangerous in term of safety compared with
the other type of soil as it has low bearing capacity and tends to settle frequently. Soft soil can be
found near a river, ocean, soil above the underground water and many more. There are many
techniques which can strengthen and reduce the settlement of the soil; one of it is stone column
technique.
Commonly many construction companies choose stone column as soil improvement
method which can increase the geotechnical properties of soil stabilize road embankment or
structures on soft soil (Isaac and Girish, 2009). The diameter of stone column usually is between
0.3 to 1.2 m and their intervals between 1.5 to 3 m. The stone column can reduce the settlement
of the surrounding soil as it absorb the load from the soil so that the bearing capacity of soil is
increase which in turn reduce deformation of soil. The interaction between the soil and stone
column can be investigated by predicting the soil settlement that will occurred in a specified
time. Usually prediction of soil settlement is done by using 2d finite element analysis. By using
this method the behavior of deformed stone column can be fully investigated and understand.

Paresh and Sandip(2012) stated that some of the advantages of incorporating stone column

into the soil that is improve slope stability, increase bearing capacity of shallow foundation,
reduce settlement of soil, and decreasing the potential of sandy soils to liquefaction. Paresh and
Sandip(2012) also added that the performance of stone columns for reinforced and improved soil is

easier and cheaper than other methods such as geotextile, grouting, and compaction. Many
construction companies choose stone column as improvement method as it is cheaper and easy to
install as today cost of construction is one of major factor in construction industry. Many
contractors want to reduce cost as low as possible in order to gain profit but at the same time
ensure that the end product is safe for people to live and use. Stone column can be installed
without casing or with casing. Column that is encasing by geotexile can improve the
performance of stone column in improving the soil. Tandel Y. K. et al. (2012) founded that when
the column is encapsulated; it can prevent stone at the column from clattering into surrounding
soil and can stiffen the stone column. Material uses for encasing the stone column are
polypropylene, polyester, etc.
In order to simulate the behavior of soil without doing and experiment, we can choose to
use engineering based software. There are lots of geotechnical software created by the software
engineer to help engineers smoothen their works and speed up the design process of buildings
and foundation. One of the geotechnical software that are commonly use worldwide is PLAXIS.
PLAXIS is a simulation software use in geotechnical department that simulate the behavior of
clay using finite element method. There are two type of PLAXIS software, one was PLAXIS 2d
and another one is PLAXIS 3d, with each type of PLAXIS had its own advantages and different
offers to the end users. PLAXIS are frequently updated and latest version are the most up to

dated and bug free to ensure that there are no errors to the result produce by the software and to
make the result as accurate as possible.
PLAXIS 8 or PLAXIS 2d is widely use by most geotechnical engineer due to its ability to
simulate the behavior of soil accurately. PLAXIS had being use in determining slope of soil,
analyse pile settlement in soil, simulate structural layer of soil for earthquake analysis and its
impact to the building structure, and many more. PLAXIS can be used for the analysis of
deformation and stability in geotechnical engineering. The improved Soil is modeled with 15
nodes triangular finite elements (Aminaton et al., 2013).
Most of the stone column reinforced foundation analyses were carried out either in
axisymmetric unit cell or two-dimensional full-scale embankment system. PLAXIS can be used
to determine behavior of stone column in soft clay for example the settlement of the soil
improved by the stone column. Usually analysis using PLAXIS is use to verified or compare the
result obtained from the software and result obtain from the experiment conducted in lab.

1.2

Problem Statement

The focus of this study is to investigate performance of stone column encapsulated by geotextile
in improving the soil. Studies of the performance of encapsulated stone clone involve with
examining the various behavior of geotexile that encapsulated the stone column under different
set of modulus. Difference in modulus of the geotexile is said to have impact at the performance
of stone column in improving the soil properties such as bearing capacity and soil settlement.
Malarvizhi and Ilamparuthi (2010) stated that casing the stone column with geotextile can give
positive impact to stone column such as for example increase the stiffness of the stone column,
3

improve strength of the stone column and prohibited the horizontal movement of the stone
column which in return reduce time allocated to install the stone column while maintaining the
quality of stone column such as drainage and frictional properties.
Finding the suitable engineering software related to geotechnical engineering is a very
hard task. Although up until today there are about 4 to 5 software being offer out there. The most
outstanding among those of the software is SAGE CRISP and PLAXIS. Both of this software
utilizes 2-D finite element method. Although up until now the developer of this software kept
improvise their products by updating the version of the software at least once per year so that it is
free from bugs and improve its accuracy and stability. Due to accuracy of this software that can
simulate the real behavior of soil, different option offered to the user to change the model
parameters such as modulus elasticity, soil type, permeability, etc., this software had being use
and practiced by major engineering company and many engineers worldwide. But always in
reality what software can offer to us cant match to what real life experiment and practical work
can give. While laboratory or in situ experiment has no limitation issue, software on the other
hand had limitation over certain extent Ong et al. (2006) found that regarding to the depth or
scale of the model, in order to prevent or avoid interfering of lower boundaries of the mesh with
the solution of area of interest. Thus although software offer abundance of advantage such as
speed up the analysis of the soil, free of human error or parallax error experiment and analysis,
can simulate soil interaction without having a real model, etc. is still has a limitation to what it
can perform so overusing the software outside its capacity can lead to dead end.
In order to observe the settlement behavior of the soft soil with stone column as a ground
improvement method encased with geotextile, we use 2-D finite element to analyses the
axisymmetric unit model cell. 3-D model finite element analysis is very time consuming so in
4

order to save time 2-D method were preferred. Scale of the model represented the actual soil
scale. The diameter of the column and model are kept in constant throughout the analysis with
specific properties of the model are specified. To ensure there will be no horizontal movement of
the soil, each horizontal side of the 2-D finite element model is restricted. Each of these models
such as soil, plate is set to with specified parameters that are kept constant. Only geotextile
properties are being change for at least 4 times with different value of modulus. Changing the
modulus of the geotextile is done in purpose of producing a graph showing relation of different
parameters such as settlement versus time, Excess pore pressure versus time, effective stress
versus time, and effective stress versus settlement.

1.3

Objective of study

Stone column are the most efficient ground improvement method among the other methods
available. Many major geotechnical engineering local and international practice the uses of stone
column to improve the soft soil on the construction site. From years to years the popularity of
stone column is rising. Due to innovative idea of the engineer, new type of stone column known
as encased stone column which is a stone column encased by the geotextile. Encased stone
column are still not widely use and unknown by most engineering company.
So the objective of the study is to analyze the effect of geotextile column to the soil as the
new type of stone column. The aim of the study is to explore more deeply about this new type of
stone column and analyze the behavior of it with the soil. Settlement, pore pressure, etc. are the
criteria which are the essential factors of determining efficiency of the encased stone column.

Second objective is that this studies aim to build the relationship between the parameters of soil
so that when the relationship are produce, we can observe what degree of impact can encased
stone column can offer. The objectives of this research are specifically stated below:

I.

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

II.
III.

consolidation using PLAXIS.

To determine excess pore pressure of surrounding soil along primary consolidation

IV.

using PLAXIS.
To relate effective vertical stress with vertical displacement along primary

V.

consolidation using PLAXIS.

To determine hoop force surrounding stone column along primary consolidation using
PLAXIS.

1.4

Scope of study

The study is performed by analyzing the behavior of encased stone column using PLAXIS. The
study is focused only for encased stone column that is use as ground improvement method.
Stone column are made from only one material that is aggregates, but other material such as
quarry sand, gravel, etc. can be used as alternative to aggregates. Stone column has a cylindrical
shaped with certain diameter and depth. In this research mohr-coulomb model had being used.
The size of the model is 0.035 meter in depth and 0.15 meter in diameter. A uniform load are
applied throughout the whole diameter of the model and evenly distributed with no difference in
intensity of loading. A rigid plate is applied at the top of the model. The soil material used in this
6

research is considered to have an undrained condition while stone column material is consider
drained condition.
Behavior of various modulus of geotextile of encased stone column is simulated by using
a finite element software call PLAXIS 2d. PLAXIS version 8.2 is used and this version can only
do analyzing in 2-D finite element only, so 3-D finite element is not involved at all. As 2-D FEM
are more time saving and friendly user than 3-D FEM, is give more advantage using 2-D than 3D. The model that will be analyze by PLAXIS will consist of one encased tone column with
geotextile layer having various stiffness value, one type of soil, one plate and uniform load
displacement on the top of the soil and plate. Plate is applied to the whole diameter of the model.
To make this studies more specified, the studies is focused on analysis of stone column
with different modulus of geotexile. So geotexile is be included in the 2-D finite element model.
PLAXIS had an option to include geotexile to the model which make the task to analyze the
FEM model easier and user friendly. As to analyze the geotexile of different modulus, different
values of modulus is be used starting from the lower value and increment in a fixed value until 5
results with different modulus of geotexile is achieved.

1.5

Limitation of study

This study focused on the effectiveness of the encased stone column as a method of soil
improvement based on factors such as settlement, pore pressure, etc. This studies only limited to
an axisymmetry finite element model of 15 triangular node element of encased stone column
and one type of soil as the primary target for this studies is to measure the impact of geotexile
encasing the stone column so only geotextile properties will be varied throughout the simulation.
The only property of geotextile which is being change is the modulus of geotextile. The modulus
value of geotextile that is used in this research is 200, 400, 600, 800 and 1000 kN/m.
Throughout the studies, only PLAXIS had being used as simulation software to simulate
the interaction of soil using finite element method. Although there are many geotechnical
engineering based software around the world for example SAGE-CRISP, only PLAXIS had
being chose ahead of those. The reason of choosing PLAXIS due to its simplicity, user friendly
and had plenty of tutorial around the website and even had an official website and bulletin which
is updated every month so user will kept updated by new features and even can submit to the
developers the bugs and suggestion for them to improve their software.
PLAXIS can simulate many geotechnical based issue for example underground tunnel
simulation, earthquake simulation, drainage simulation, and many more. For this studies there
are no earthquake simulation or drainage simulation or anything, just interaction of stone column
and soil are being analyzed and focused. This study only focused on behavior of single encased
stone column and does not include studies on behavior of a group of encased stone column. A
simple thing is sometimes works better than complex things as percentage for error are reduced
and procedure is much easy and less consuming.

1.6

Significant of study

This study is significant to the geotechnical engineering department and contractor. This
studies can verified the impact that geotextile can have to the stone column. The impact can be
good or can be bad. If the impact is good and positive, geotechnical engineers will more likely to
incorporate the encased stone column rather than the ordinary stone column into the soil. If the
impact is not very good or bad or doesnt have an effect at all, then the used encased stone
column can be neglected and use the ordinary stone column. The capability of stone column to
improve the soil surrounding it can be observed more deeply as there is still lack of studies about
it. With this research, geotechnical engineers can predict how big the settlement can be reduced
when incorporating the stone column into the soil. Furthermore contractor can be ensure that
stone column are the cost cut method of improving the soil compare to other possible method
available. The capability of PLAXIS to simulate the soil and column can be test and explore
more deeply as the use of PLAXIS are still new and not widely expose to many engineering
department especially in Malaysia.

CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1

General concept of stone column

The term Stone Column clearly defined the material and shape of the stone column. The only
material need to form a stone column is aggregates. The aggregates are being compacted into a
collective group of stone in a shape of cylinder. Most of us commonly mistaken by assuming that
stone column is same as concrete column. Although they share similarities for example their
shape and material, there are a difference which makes them distinctive from each other. The
difference between stone column and concrete column is that stone column does not mix with
cement as binding agent, but using compaction to reduce gaps between the individual aggregates
while the surrounding soil kept the aggregates in shape. For concrete column the aggregates had
to being mix with cement and water to bind the aggregates together and had to be dried for the
column to achieve the optimum strength and ready to be use on site. Difference between stone
column and concrete column are shown in Table 2.1
Table 2.1: Difference between stone column and concrete column.
Stone Column
1. The only material use to form the

Concrete Column
1. Use aggregates, cement and water mix

column is aggregates.
2. Cast in-situ/on-site

in a certain ratio.
2. Can be cast on-site or precast before

3. Does not need to wait 27 days to

transfer on site for use.

3. Need to wait for 27 days for the

2.1.1

achieve optimum strength, can be used

concrete mix to achieve optimum

straight away.

concrete strength.

Stone column as ground improvement method.

10

Stone column is one of the method that can is used widely to improve the soil condition
around the site. Example of ground improvement methods that can be used other than stone
column is dynamic compaction, jet grouting, soil mixing, cement stabilization, etc. These lists of
ground improvement provide the geotechnical engineer many options to choose depending on
the type of soil and needs. Criteria for selection of ground improvement based on factors for
example cost, time, difficulty, facilities, labors, knowledge and many more.
Usually time and cost are the primary factors that decide which method is used as this
two criteria effect the cost of construction and time of completion of the construction. Commonly
geotechnical engineer choose stone column as ground improvement methods. The advantage of
stone column compare to all the other methods is that it is easy to install, cheaper cost as it use
cheap material such as aggregates, shorter time to install and prepare for use on site, not complex
installation compare to other methods, etc.
All the ground improvement method are used to work with existing ground except for
rigid inclusion like piles which are intend to bypass the ground to a certain degree. Stone column
load transfer mechanism is shown at Figure 2.1. McCabe et al. (2007) in his research explained
that the load is transmitted by interaction of column-soil interface or in other name shear stress
and end bearing.

11

Figure 2.1 Load transfer reaction of (a) pile and (b) stone column (McCabe et al.,
2007).

Soil has many properties which define its behavior and the way it react when load is applied to it.
The most common properties that are used to determined the quality and type of soil is
settlement and bearing capacity. The stone column is functioning by improving ground
characteristics such as reduce settlement and increasing bearing capacity of surrounded soil, and
ease the drainage system by transferring the drainage path from vertical to horizontal. The soil
displacement is occurring laterally or horizontally while the installation process occurred:
- Generation of excess water pressure is occurred and is assumed to scatter around the permeable
columns;
- Increased in horizontal stresses, which in result caused the coefficient of earth pressure K to
exceed the original rest coefficient, Ko.
- Remolding in part of surrounding soil is done by vibrator penetration.

12

2.1.1.1 Bearing Capacity

Bearing capacity is an ability of the soil itself to withstand applied load on it. The load can be in
form of line load, point load, circular load, continuous load, rectangular load, etc. Ultimate
vertical stress (q) in a stone column could be predicted by using the equation below;

q=

1+ sin
1sin

'

( r o + 4 c

where is the stone friction angle , 'ro is the free-field lateral effective stress and c is the
undrained strength. This equation had being used around the world and is widely practiced by
professional engineer, students, lecturers, etc. Recent research conducted by Aminaton Marto et
al. (2013) proved that diameter of stone column can affect the bearing capacity of the soil
directly. The result is shown in the Table 2.2:
Table 2.2: Bearing capacity with various diameter of stone column (Aminaton et al., 2013).
Stone Column
Bearing Capacity in 20 mm settlement

D=30
97.34

D=40
166.47

D=60
353.88

From the figure, we can clearly see that with increase of the diameter of stone column the
bearing capacity will also increase. We can conclude that stone column diameter value is directly
proportional to the value of bearing capacity. Take note that the experiment is conducted for
bearing capacity in 20mm settlement, for settlement bigger than 20mm it still clearly unseen if

13

the stone column diameter can have great impact to the bearing capacity value of the soil, so
deeper research still needed to validate it.

2.1.1.2 Settlement

Definition settlement of soil is reduce of soil volume by applied external load which
result in reducing water content of the soil without substitution by air. Isaac and Girish (2009)
had conducted and experiment about the effect of number of column installed in the soil to the
settlement of the soil. It is found using group of three columns can improve the load deformation
parameter and if using group of seven columns it will improve better than 3 columns.
Furthermore Isaac and Girish (2009) also found that spacing between stone columns can also
have an impact. Load capacity, can be improved by reducing the spacing between the stone
column and if the spacing is increased, the load capacity is decreased. Figure 2.2, Figure 2.3,
Figure 2.4, Figure 2.5, Figure 2.6 shows the result of the experiment conducted by Isaac and
Girish (2009). The number of column and spacing between columns is varied to get different
result and compared the different of the result.

14

Figure 2.2 Load vs settlement graph for single stone column (Isaac and Girish M.S., 2009).

Figure 2.3 Load vs settlement graph for 7 column (Spacing=3d) (Isaac and Girish M.S.,
2009).

15

Figure 2.4 Load vs settlement graph for 7 column (Spacing=2.5d) (Isaac and Girish M.S.,
2009).

Figure 2.5 Load vs settlement graph for 3 column (Spacing=3d) (Isaac and Girish M.S.,
2009).

16

Figure 2.6 Load vs settlement graph for 3 column (Spacing=2.5d) (Isaac and Girish M.S.,
2009).

2.1.2 Vibro Floatation as a method of ordinary stone column installation.

McCabe et al. (2007) stated that vibro floatation method is a general definition of method for
installing ordinary stone column into the ground as the mean of improving soil condition by
penetrating the ground using vibrating poker and the process involve vibro-replacement and
vibro-compaction. Furthermore McCabe et al. (2007) also added that there are two common
ways which the stone can be inserted into the ground which is top feed and bottom feed. The
vibrating poker is inserted into the ground by the mean of penetration and vibration to create the
hole inside the soil which will be the place where the stone will be filled in to form a stone
column. Then after the hole is created, the poker is pulled out from the ground completely so
that stone can be put into the ground filling the hole created completely by using control volume.
17

That is for top feed system, but for bottom feed system there is a different approach in the ways
the stone is inserted. For bottom feed, it use rigged mounted hopper to insert the stone column
into the ground by using a tube. The inserting process of stone is done without pulling the poker
out unlike the stone system feed. Figure 2.7 and Figure 2.8 will show the process of installing
stone column using top system feed and bottom system feed.

The hole is prepared by

penetrating the soil using
vibroflot. The hole is wash while
penetration of soil occurred.

When the insertation process of

stone occurred, water and air will
be push out of the hole.

During insertation of stone, vibroflot

will compact the stone by moving up
and down so that lateral compression
occurred at the nearby soil. Stone
column is able withstand higher axial
load.

Figure 2.7 Process of vibro flotation using top feed system

18

With the aid of vibration, vibroflot

is penetrating into the soil for the
preparation of inserting stone.

Insertation of stone by vibroflot is

done by using tremie pipe with
external help (air pressure).

Compaction of column is done by

moving the vibroflot in vertical
direction which in turn causes
lateral compression of nearby soil.

Figure 2.8 Process of vibro flotation using bottom feed system.

Top feed system is suitable for the ground which when the hole is created, the hole will not
disclosed by the soil itself, means that silt and gravel soil is not suitable. For bottom feed system
it is more suitable to sandy and silt clay or soil with high ground water table.

2.1.3

Past research about ordinary stone column.

There are numbers of extensive research conducts by many researchers in investigating

the effect of ordinary stone column in improving the ground condition. Recent research by
Ambily and Gandhi (2004) which investigating the load carrying capacity of soil with different
condition, one condition is load applied only at the column and the other condition is load is
applied at the whole area of the test model. The experiment will be carried out with different
value of shear strength. Figure 2.9 shown the load condition for the experiment.
19

Figure 2.9 Two different conditions for the experiment (Ambily and Gandhi, 2004).

From the Figure 2.9(a) bulging of stone column can be clearly seen which occurred at upper part
of the stone column. Bulging does not occurred at Figure 2.9(b). The load versus settlement
graph for this research is shown in Figure 2.10 and Figure 2.11.

20

Figure 2.10 Load vs settlement graph for column area loaded (Ambily and Gandhi, 2004).

Figure 2.11 Load vs settlement graph for whole area loaded (Ambily and Gandhi, 2004).

21

Due to bulging of the stone column, failure can be seeing at Figure 2.11. From the experiment, it
can be conclude that higher shear strength can carry higher load and resulting lower vertical
displacement of soil.
Das and Pal (2013) recently were investigating the impact of ordinary stone column to the soft
clay. He use two type of soil for this experiment, one is sandy silt clay and the other one is silt
clay. The properties of the material use by Das and Pal (2013) the experiment is shown in Table
2.3 and Table 2.4.

Table 2.3: Properties of aggregate (Das and Pal, 2013).

Properties of Aggregate
Specific gravity

2.613

Water absorption

2.417

Angularity number

4.23

Shear strength

C = 9.86 kN/m

22

= 46.94

Table 2.4: Properties of soils (Das and Pal, 2013).

Soil properties

Silty clay soil

Optimum moisture content

Sandy silt with clay

Physical properties:
37.29
33.0
29.71
2.60
30.10
16.46
13.64
Engineering properties:
17.10

(%)
Maximum dry density

17.26

16.77

(kN/m)
Angle of friction, (in

24.00

19.37

degree)
Cohesion, c (kN/m)

13.79

15.04

Sand (%)
Silt content (%)
Clay content (%)
Specific gravity
Liquid limit (%)
Plastic limit (%)
Plasticity index (%)

17.21
50.25
32.54
2.56
39.50
20.57
18.93
18.50

The result of the experiment is produce in load versus settlement graph. Das and Pal (2013) from
his research found that by increasing diameter of ordinary stone column, the soil bearing
capacity for the sandy silt with clay increase and thus improve the soil performance. Figure 2.12
shown the load settlement behavior for sandy silt with clay soil.

23

Figure 2.12 Load settlement graph for ordinary stone column reinforced sandy silt clay soil
(Das and Pal, 2013).

Das and Pal (2013) in his research had also investigated the effect of ordinary stone column to
layer soil which consists of silt clay at the top layer and sandy silt clay at the bottom layer. He
had found that increased in diameter of stone column cause decreasing of performance of the soil
in term of bearing capacity. The cause for this undesired impact is due to bulging of stone
column resulting from poor confines pressure offered by top layer of soil which is silt clay.

2.1.3.1 Stone used as materials for stone column compared with other materials.

Stones had being used as a main material for stone column by many geotechnical engineering
worldwide due to its performance when compared with other materials. List of materials that can
be used for stone column besides stone is quarry dust, sea sand, river sand, gravel, etc. Isaac and
Girish (2009) had conducted an experiment to find which material is the best among the best.

24

Five material, quarry dust, sea sand, river sand, gravel, and stone had being label m1, m2, m3,
m4, and m5 respectively with each of them being use as material for stone column. Figure 2.13
shows the result of the experiment.

Figure 2.13 Load deformation graph for different material of stone column (Isaac and
Girish, 2009).

The load deformation curve for stone is higher than the rest of material which shows that stone is
the best material for stone column. When using stone as stone column material, it will needs high
loading applied to it for the soil to settle and deform. Quarry dust are the lowest quality of
material compare to the rest as the curve of the graph for it is lower which means that with small
applied load the soil will settle and deform easily.

2.2 Encased Stone Column.

25

Encased stone column is same with ordinary stone column except with one different, encased
stone column are coat or being enclosed by a casing. The casing that are commonly use in today
practice is geotextile. Recent years, encased stone column had gained a rave review by many
geotechnical engineering company as it is said to be a much better performance of stone column
compare with the ordinary one. It is said to reduce settlement of soil greatly and increase the
shear between the stone column and the soil. The casing also helps to maintain and keep the
stone column structure at their acceptable structure.

2.2.1 Installation method of encased stone column.

Figure 2.14 Installation of encased stone column (Lee et al., 2008).

Installation of ordinary stone column and encased stone column are different. Ordinary stone
column use vibro replacement method as an installation method. Encased stone column is a bit
different because it involves installation of geogrid encasement. Figure 2.14 above show the
visualization of installation process for the encased stone column. Lee et al. (2008) explained
that the first step of encased stone column installation is by drilling the location where the
26

column will be located. After drilling, casing will be put into the soil. Excess soil inside the
casing is removed before the introduction of stone. After removing the remaining soil, the casing
is filled with stone and compacted layer by layer by using a rammer. Then the next step is to
introduce geotextile encasement into the casing and introduce stone column into the encasement
by using a hopper so that the stone is evenly filled and compacted until the column height reach
the surface of the ground

2.2.2 Research about encased stone column.

Aminaton et al. (2013) had conducted an experiment to observe the impact reinforced
geotextile to the stone column. In the experiment, diameter of the column is varied and both
stone columns without geotextile and with geotextile are tested. Figure 2.15 and figure 2.16
show the result of the experiment.

27

Figure 2.15 Graph of settlement versus load for non reinforced stone column (Aminaton et
al., 2013).

Figure 2.16 Graph of settlement vs load for reinforced stone column (Aminaton et al.,
2013).
From the result we can see that encased stone column improve its strength by three times margin
better than non encased stone column. The clear result is tabulated in the Table 2.5 below which
shows the clear difference of bearing capacity achieve by encased and non-encased stone
column.
Table 2.5: Bearing capacity of stone column (Aminaton et al., 2013).
Stone Column

D=30

D=40

D=60

Bearing Capacity (in 20 mm settlement)

97.34

166.47

353.88

Reinforced Stone Column

D=30

D=40

D=60

Bearing Capacity (in 20 mm settlement)

73.24

478.15

762.78

This show that encased stone column can be a better choice than ordinary stone column but a
better research is needed in order to explore more deeply about the impact of geotextile
reinforcement for stone column. So that is why this paper is intent to produce more graph which
28

shows various relationship between different parameters such as excess pore pressure, stresssettlement, etc.
Malarvizhi and Ilamparuthi (2010) had conducted an experiment which the objective is to
find the factor that caused improvement to the behavior of the stone column when encase it with
geotextile casing so it means that the experiment will show the interaction between stone
column, geotexile casing and the soil itself. The finite element model used by Malarvizhi and
Ilamparuthi (2010) is axisymmetry model of 15 node triangular element. The model consists of
clay, stone column and geotextile casing. Load is applied at the column area and extending to
certain area of clay. The analysis is carried by varying the diameter of the model and settlement
and determines the effect of variety of those two parameters to the bulging of the stone column.
The analysis is carried with one stone column without geotextile reinforcement and another one
with geotextile reinforcement. Result of the experiment can be seen at the Figure 2.17 below for
stone column without geotextile reinforcement and Figure 2.18 and Figure 2.19 for stone column
with geotextile reinforcement. Figure 2.18 and Figure 2.19 showing the relationship of various
modulus of geotextile with the radial settlement and hoop force respectively.

Figure 2.17 Bulging of ordinary stone column with different settlement (Malarvizhi and
Ilamparuthi, 2013).
29

Figure 2.18 Radial settlement for geotextile reinforced stone column (Malarvizhi and
Ilamparuthi, 2010).

Figure 2.19 Various hoop force value for geotextile reinforced stone column (Malarvizhi
and Ilamparuthi, 2010).

Malarvizhi and Ilamparuthi (2010) had concluded from the result of his research that
susceptibility of encased stone column to bulging is lower than ordinary stone column although
the condition for both encased and ordinary stone column is similar. Malarvizhi and Ilamparuthi
(2010) also found that magnitude of bulging for encased stone column is lower than ordinary

30

stone column is due to the stiffness of the geotextile casing, the higher the value of stiffness, the
lower the strain produce which in turn lower the possibility to bulge.
Aminaton et al. (2013) had also investigated the effect of various stiffness of geotextile to
compare the settlement of soil between reinforced stone columns with different value of
modulus. The diameter of the stone column is kept constant which the value is 60mm while the
value of stiffness of the geotextile encasing the stone column is varied starting from 50 kN/m,
250 kN/m, 500 kN/m, and 1000 kN/m. The result of the experiment is shown below by Table 2.6
and Figure 2.20.

Table 2.6: Bearing capacity of ESC for various geogrid stiffness (Aminaton et al., 2013).
Stone Column
Bearing

OSC
353.9

J=50
762.78

J=250
855.47

J=500
894.71

J=1000
923.74

capacity

Figure 2.20 Graph of load deformation of encased stone column with various value of
stiffness (Aminaton et al., 2013).

31

Only load deformation graph are produced for Aminaton et al. (2013) experiment, so
geogrid encased stone column needs more research and this shows the significant of this research
paper as it will unlock key to understand mechanism of geogrid encased stone column. Other
than research by Aminaton et al. (2013), Malarvizhi and Ilamparuthi (2008) in his research paper
had conducted an experiment which use triaxial test on encapsulated stone column to understand
the behavior of encapsulated stone column. The experiment is analyzed by using finite element
software called PLAXIS and also at the same time the experiment is conducted in laboratory.
The result is plot in the graph and can be seen in the Figure 2.21 below. It shows both result
from the experiment and from software are compile in the same graph. The mesh model of
geogrid encased stone column can be seen at the Figure 2.22. The model is an axisymmetric
model with the model generate with 15 node triangular elements. The model also is set to not
having horizontal movement from the left.

Figure 2.21 Shear stress versus strain relationship produced by both experimental and
PLAXIS (Malarvizhi and Ilamparuthi, 2008).

32

Figure 2.22 Simulation model to be analyse using PLAXIS (Malarvizhi and Ilamparuthi,
2008).

The result from the experiment conduct by Malarvizhi and Ilamparuthi (2008) found that
value of cohesion is increased as diameter of geogrid stone column is decrease and vice versa
and this means that the smaller column is much stiffer and produce more strength than higher
diameter of column.
Castro et al. (2013) recently were conducting a research for encasement stone column to
investigate effect of different stiffness of geotextile to the performance of settlement reduction to
the soil. The research is done by using PLAXIS as an analytical approach to investigate the
behavior of geotextile encasement and the model he is is shown in the Figure 2.23 below. From
his research he found that increase in stiffness of geotextile can reduce the settlement of soil
around the encased stone column. Castro et al. state higher stiffness of geotextile can provide
more confinement to stone column thus increase the load capacity of the stone column. The
settlement-time graph from the research by Castro et al. is shown in Figure 2.24.

33

Figure 2.23 The test model. (Castro et al., 2013).

Figure 2.24 Settlement-time graph (Castro et al., 2013).

Castro et al. also found that by applying the geotextile as an encasement for stone column at the
top part of the column, it will reduce the strain of the stone column greatly as strain occurred
more greatly at the upper part of the column. This is shown at Figure 2.25 as the deeper the depth
34

of the column, the lower the strain of the stone column. The lower the strain at the stone column
the lower the tendency for the column to bulge so that the performance of the stone column in
improving the soil can be maintains.

Figure 2.25 Depth-strain curve. (Castro et. al., 2013).

Figure 2.26 Settlement-load curve. (Castro et al., 2013).

35

Figure 2.26 show the load bearing capacity relationship which Castro et al. (2013) conclude that
bearing capacity of the encased stone column increase with higher stiffness modulus of
geotextile.
Tandel et al. (2012) has recently conducted a numerical study of encased stone column.
He used PLAXIS to study the behavior of encased stone column in soil embankment. The 2d
model of his research is shown in Figure 2.27. From his research, he found that by increasing the
stiffness of geotextile the load carrying capacity of reinforced stone column increase thus result
in lower settlement of the soil which can be seen at Figure 2.28 below. Tandel et al. (2012) also
varying the modulus of soil which he conclude that increase in modulus of soil also resulting in
reducing of soil settlement.

Figure 2.27 The 2d model use by Tandel et. al (2012).

36

Figure 2.28 Settlement-time graph (Tandel et al., 2012).

Hataf and Nabipour (2013) recently had conducted a research to investigate effect of geotextile
reinforced stone column to the bearing capacity of the improved soil. In his research, he used
different length of reinforcement to see whether it will improve the performance of encased stone
column. In his research the cylinder size for the test model is about 1m in height and 1m in
diameter. The cylinder is filled with soil with encased stone column at the centre of the cylinder.
The test model for the experiment and material properties are shown in Figure 2.29 and Table 2.7
below.

Figure 2.29 Test model from experiment (Hataf and Nabipour, 2013).
37

Table 2.7: Properties of material use by Hataf and Nabipour (2013).

Parameter
Friction Angle
Cohesion (kN/m)
Unit weight (kN/m)
Liquid Limit (%)
Plasticity Index (%)

Clay
26
5.0
15.0
44.5
20.0

Sand
35
0.0
16.0
-

From this experiment, bearing capacity graph for all different length of encasement casing the
stone column are produced and analyzed. Hataf and Nabipour (2013) found that by encasing the
stone column by half of the column length, it gives a similar performance with full length
encased stone column especially at clay type of soil thus give more benefits such as cost
reduction and material saving. Ellouze and Bouassidan (2009) conducted a research which is to
investigate behaviour of soft soil by installing a group of stone column rather than single stone
column. Ellouze and Bouassidan (2009) conducted a research which is more macroscopic and
covered the interaction between the stone columns in a formed of group. This research is more
microscopic and investigates deeply the interaction of single stone column which had being
encased by geotextile.

2.2.3 Other research about Geotextile as reinforcement or enhancements.

38

Geotextile, other than use as an encasement or reinforcement for the stone column with
the means to improve strength and properties of stone column, it also can be used without stone
column to improve the properties of the soil layer and use as a reinforcement. Sivaoshnia et al.
(2010) had conduct and experiment to investigate the effect of geotextile reinforced embankment
on the soil which the type of soil is soft clay. He stated that geotetextile or geosynthetics can be
use in wide range of engineering application such as separation, filtration, sealing, drainage and
reinforcement. He uses PLAXIS to assess the impact of having geotextile reinforced in the soil
and compare if the soil with no reinforced geotextile performed worst or better than reinforced
soil. The experiment simulate 3 embankment model, one of the model contain no geotextile
reinforcement, another one contain geotextile reinforcement at the lower layer of embankment
and the last one contain 3 geotextile layer at each layer having one geotextile reinforcement.
Figure 2.30, Figure 2.31 and Figure 2.32 show the model embankment use by Sivaoshnia et al.
(2010).

Figure 2.30 Embankment without geotextile reinforcement (Sivaoshnia et al., 2010).

39

Figure 2.31 Embankment with one geotextile under the soil layer (Sivaoshnia et al., 2010).

Figure 2.32 Embankment with three geotextile under the soil layer (Sivaoshnia et al., 2010).

Table 2.8 below shows the table contain the result of the experiment which consists of value of
highest vertical settlement and highest horizontal settlement. From the result as we observe more
carefully, we can clearly see that having more geotextile reinforcement place at the soil, the
higher the settlement or displacement will be reduce, the lower displacement of soil means that
the soil is strong and safe to use for construction

40

Table 2.8: Horizontal and vertical displacement with different number of geotextile (Sivaoshnia
et al., 2010).
No. of geotextile layer
No geotextile layer
One layer of geotextile layer
Three layer of geotextile layer

Horizontal displacement(cm)
37
25.59
24.11

Vertical displacement(cm)
85.57
77.81
76.45

From the result of the experiment Sivaoshnia et al. (2010) conclude three things, first geotextile
layer can reduce about 30 percent amount of horizontal settlement occurred near embankment
toe, secondly the higher the stiffness value of geotextile, the lower the displacement, and thirdly
by increasing number of geotextile layer, it will cause 1.4 percent of reduction for vertical
displacement and 4 percent for horizontal displacement.

2.2.4 Experimental versus Theoretical verification by other researcher.

In todays world of technology software tends to overtake job which human needs to do.
Example of things which software can solve or do in behalf of human is calculation of
mathematical problem, save and compile a data, produce data and tabulate table, produce graph
based on the parameters given, indentify critical problem of data, etc. Software can improve
human quality of work and increase productivity of the company and their workers. Without
software many complex works cant be done in time. Software can also reduce cost of research
project as it sometimes remove the needs of doing laboratory experiment as the software itself
can simulate the experiment and produce result accurately and close as the result obtain through
laboratory experiment.

41

In geotechnical engineering there is about many software available which the

geotechnical engineer can do to simplified task or remove burden of work from them. List of
standout software are Geo FEM, PLAXIS, Z-Soil, and SAGE-CRISP. This four software use
finite element method as their core calculation in simulating the actual experiment. Those
software is said to be among the best as the software produce result as accurate as real life
experiment and the software itself is free of bug as it was kept updated every month in order to
satisfy their user and give the value of money the user has pay for their software. Recent research
had being conducted to test if the software can produce accurate result and same as result from
laboratory experiment.
Ambily and Gandhi (2004) conducted an experiment which is to assess the settlement
and stiffness of the soil reinforced with stone column using different spacing of stone column.
The result is obtain through an experiment which ten test is done with different spacing value
and moisture content and the result is analysed by using software called PLAXIS. The laboratory
experiment conducted by Ambily and Gandhi (2004) is done with two objective, to determine
bearing capacity of soil and to determine the stiffness of the soil improve by the stone column.
The properties of the experiment are list in the Table 2.9 and the test model is shown in Figure
2.33.

Table 2.9: Experiment properties by Ambily and Gandhi (2004).

s/d

w (%)

Su (kPa)
42

Loading condition

25

30

Entire area
Yes

Column alone
Yes

30

12

Yes

Yes

35

6.5

Yes

Yes

30

12

Yes

Yes

30

12

Yes

Yes

Figure 2.33 Test model use in the laboratory experiment (Ambily and Gandhi, 2004).

The 500mm cylindrical tank consists of soft clay and stone column of diameter 100 mm is use as
a test model. The diameter of tank is change between 210 mm and 420mm in order to evaluate
the effect of spacing of stone column. For PLAXIS analysis, the model use axisymmetric 15
triangular mesh model with boundaries condition. The mesh model is shown in Figure 2.34
below. The change or deformation of the model after evaluation and calculation are shown in
Figure 2.35 we can see that the model is deform or settle compared than before the evaluation
and calculation of the mesh model.
43

Figure 2.34 Axisymmetric model of PLAXIS (Ambily and Gandhi, 2004).

Figure 2.35 Deform mesh of finite element model (Ambily and Gandhi, 2004).

Result from both test, PLAXIS and experimental result is compared as to see if the load versus
settlement graph produce by the result from the experiment from laboratory is similar with the
result produce by PLAXIS using finite element method. The result is shown in the Figure 2.36
where load versus settlement graph are produced for stone column with different spacing and
44

both result from PLAXIS and experiment are produced in the same graph to show clearly the
difference between both results.

Figure 2.36 Load vs settlement graph with different s/d ratios (Ambily and Gandhi, 2004).

We can clearly seeing that the result produced by both experiment and PLAXIS are about similar
to each other although it seems to have a gap of difference between them but the gap can be
ignored and still at an acceptable level. Ambily and Gandhi (2004) had conclude from his
experiment the result produce by both experiment and PLAXIS are very well compared and
analysed and from this result it can be a guide stone to decide whether it is safe to use PLAXIS
to simulate the behaviour of stone column without verify the result obtain by laboratory
experiment.
Malarvizhi and Ilamparuthi (2008) had also conducted an experiment which consist both
result from laboratory experiment and PLAXIS. The laboratory experiment is conducted at
similar manner with laboratory test conducted by Ambily and Gandhi (2004). The test model use
45

steel mould and cylindrical tube glue with geogrid encasing the tube are place inside it. Stone
material is pour inside it and being compacted for a diameter of 50 mm and 75 mm with its
height is twice of its diameter. The test model is place at the triaxial apparatus and result from the
triaxial test are collected and analysed by PLAXIS. The graph for both laboratory experiment
and PLAXIS are plot together and compared with each other. Figure 2.37 shows the result of
triaxial test conducted by Malarvizhi and Ilamparuthi (2008). The dotted line is the result from
PLAXIS analysis while the straight line is the result for laboratory experiment.

Figure 2.37 Triaxial test conduct by Malarvizhi and Ilamparuthi(2008).

From the result we can see that the result from PLAXIS does not have big difference compared
with an actual experiment which verified the result of the actual experiment itself. So it can be
conclude that the software itself is reliable and practical to use and can be used without doing an
actual experiment. So argument of people saying that software cant be trusted or produce result
which is inaccurate are not valid and are not based on actual fact. Malarvizhi and Ilamparuthi

46

(2008) and Ambily and Gandhi (2004) had being succeed in proving the accuracy and reliability
of the software itself. Take note that both of them use finite element program called PLAXIS
which we can conclude that PLAXIS software are most reliable software for simulation of the
soil interaction with stone column. That is why for this research paper we used PLAXIS mainly
for assessment of our research without the need of doing actual experiment as the PLAXIS itself
can simulate the experiment very well and accurate.

2.3 Other research which used PLAXIS as their main software.

Many researches had used PLAXIS to verify their result. Some research even use
PLAXIS mainly without doing and actual experiment as it cut the cost needed for an experiment
and save time as PLAXIS can give result within a minute and even within seconds. Rather than
using it to analyse and evaluate the interaction of stone column to the soil, PLAXIS can be used
for wide range of application, for example evaluate settlement of all type of soil, simulate the soil
movement during earthquake impact it had to the structure above the soil, evaluate and
calculation of pile structure installed at the ground, simulate tunnel movement in the ground,
implementation of hypoplasticity, etc.
David (2012) from his research use PLAXIS to incorporate hypoplasticity. He proposed
that the clay which he has developed earlier with ability to correctly interpreting the strain value,
to be change or modify slightly to take behaviour of meta stable of clay structure into
consideration. Liew and Tan (2007) conducted a research assess and evaluate the behaviour of
stone column which is used on reinforced soil wall. The parameters that had being evaluated is

47

the bulging of column, stress distribution at the stone column and soil, settlement of the soil, and
the stability of the reinforced soil wall. All the parameters are evaluating using PLAXIS.

Cortlever and Gutter (2002) recently were doing a research which use PLAXIS software
to verified the design calculation which use British standard as their code of design. From the
research it is found that accurate determination of tensile strength can be obtain through
numerical approach due to consideration of PLAXIS to take the effect of boundary condition into
account. Babu and Singh (2009) used PLAXIS 2d version to simulate the nail structure in the
soil and evaluate its behaviour and performance. Figure 2.38 shows the finite element model for
the nail structure.

Figure 2.38 Finite element model of nail structure (Babu and Singh, 2009).
2.4

Gap of Research

Table 2.10: Gap of research.

No

Researcher(s)

Objective

Year

Name
48

Difference

Malarvizhi and

To evaluate

Ilamparuthi

mechanism of

2010

encased stone column.

encased stone column

Malarvizhi and Ilamparuthi only

Ellouze and

To predict the

applied load at column area.

This research studies only on

Bouassida

settlement by a group

single encased stone column but

of stone column

Ellouze and Bouassida studies

Malarvizhi and

Analysis of

about group of stone column.

Load is applied at both soil and

Ilamparuthi

encapsulated stone

2009

2008

encased stone column.

column using
4

Load is applied at both soil and

Malarvizhi and Ilamparuthi only

Aminaton Marto

numerically analysis.
To analyse the

et al.

performance of

focused on bearing capacity of

reinforced stone

the encased stone column. This

column using finite

research widen the studies about

2013

element method.

applied load at column area.

Aminaton Marto et al. only

encased

stone

column

by

studying impact of settlement

with time, excess pore pressure
with time, and effective stress
5

Lee et al.

Field Load Tests of

2008

with time.
Lee et al. only study on load

Encased Stone

settlement behaviour and lateral

Columns in Soft

displacement of the encased

Ground

stone column. This study covers

49

lot more such as excess pore

pressure, effective stress, and
6

2013

hoop force.
Hataf and Nabipour only study

Hataf and

Experimental

Nabipour

investigation on

on bearing capacity of the

bearing capacity of

encased stone column. This

geosynthetic

study covers lot more such as

encapsulated stone

excess pore pressure, effective

columns

stress,

hoop

force,

lateral

displacement.
7

Khairul Asyraf

To analyse various

Bin

modulus value of

Khairuddin

geotextile encasing the

2013

stone column by using

Plaxis.
2.5

Theoretical Background

Table 2.11: Theoretical background

No

Theory/Concept

Hypothesis/Equation

referenc
es

The modulus value of geotextile

The higher the modulus values of

will affect the hoop force acting at

geotextile, the more increase the

the geotextile.
Settlement of soil effect by the

hoop force.
The higher the stress absorb by the

stress distribution of soil.

soil, the settlement occurred at the

50

Settlement is effected by time.

soil increased.
Settlement increased rapidly and
then decrease gradually as time

Effective stress is affected by

passed.
Effective stress will increase as

period of time.

time passed but the increment will

be more linear at latter stage.

Excess pore pressure is affected by Excess pore pressure will increase
time.

rapidly during plastic stage and will

gradually decrease at consolidation
stage until it reaches the value near
zero.
CHAPTER 3

METHODOLOGY

3.1

Introduction

Methodology is among the most important step in the research. Commonly many new
researchers dont give attention to the detail of methodology. Improper planning of method for a
research always leads the research to disrupted end. As many greatest people in the world always
quote better planning for failure than failure to planning. Planning is essential as it can prevent
time wasting as every step of research are well prepared and not decide spontaneous, can reduce
cost of research as it remove unnecessary step and simplify method of research, obstacles can be

51

detect early and pre- elimination step to counter it can be plan early through proper planning and
act.
The common step of research always starts from literature review. Literature review is
part of research step where all the information gathered, past research from many authors,
journals, articles, are collected, analyze and summarize into a form of literature and every
contribution of the research are cited with the name of the author. Next method is always
subjective and not fixed as it depends on the type of research, suitability and time constraint.
Sometimes it can be a survey, laboratory experiment, software analysis or all of it, usually
depends on the result we want to obtain. In this research paper the method use after literature
review is software analysis only. After gathering all information and data for literature review,
software analysis is carried out to process the whole data and produce the result which is needed
to produce outcome for this research paper.
The objective of this research can be achieved through literature review and software
analysis using PLAXIS. Software analysis is done by using geotechnical based software which
used finite element as their cored calculation that is PLAXIS. PLAXIS can produce all essential
data needed to extract the outcome of the research and make conclusion based on the outcome.
Result obtain are plot in a graph and compared with past research.

3.1.1 PLAXIS

PLAXIS is a finite element based program which is used by many geotechnical engineering
department to analyze and simulate many soil based problem. Unlike many software, PLAXIS
does not confine itself to evaluation of soil, but also jump itself to simulate and analyze nail
52

structure, tunnel, reinforced wall installed at soil, etc. PLAXIS is a common choice due to its
simplicity and user-friendly feature. New user can learned to used it within a day and a=even
after an hours playing through the software feature. PLAXIS provide many features which is
useful and essential for many applications. Figure 3.1 shows feature contain in PLAXIS. It can
be seen that some of the features PLAXIS provide is line drawing tools, plate tools, hinge and
rotation tool, geogrid, anchor, tunnel, standard fixities, many types of load for example point
load and distributed load, drain, well, material set tool, mesh generation tool, initial condition
tool, and many more. More than ten tools are provided which are more than enough to simulate
many geotechnical engineering based problem encountered.

Figure 3.1 Set of tools provide in PLAXIS.

For this research, PLAXIS 2d version 8.2 will be used as main software for analysis of stone
column encased with stone column with various value of modulus of geotextile. PLAXIS comes
with many version as it is kept updated every year with every latest version comes with new
features and less bug. The latest version of PLAXIS is come with 3d features which give extra
dimension and advantages compare to older 2d version of it. But although the 3d version of
PLAXIS provides many set of tools, it also is a disadvantage to it as many features means that it
will likely to be more complex for first time user and not very user friendly compared to 2d
version. PLAXIS version 2d interface is shown as in Figure 3.2.
53

Figure 3.2 PLAXIS 2d interface.

There is a big difference of interface between those versions of PLAXIS. See that PLAXIS 2d
version 8.2 are more simpler and clear and clean interface compared to the PLAXIS 3d version
which the model needs to be built in 3d and consume lots of time with many additional step. For
this research PLAXIS version 2d is suitable as stone column interaction with the soil can be
simulating very well by this version of PLAXIS. PLAXIS 2d also provide geogrid tools which is
essential for this research as stone column which need to by analyzed are encased by the geogrid
encasement, so geogrid tools can simulate the geotextile very well and various modulus for the
geotextile can be set and change many times.

54

3.2

Flow Chart of Methodology

Flow charts of this research are shown in Figure 3.3 which demonstrates the methodology of this
research which is the guideline for every step taken in this research.

Problem Statement

Literature Review

To
determine
effective
vertical stress and settlement
of composite encased stone
column with various modulus
of geotextile.

To simulate the interaction

between
encased
stone
column and soil layer by
using PLAXIS finite element
software package.

Plaxis input
55

To produce graph based on soil

and stone column data such as
settlement versus time, Excess
pore pressure versus time,
effective stress versus time, and
stress versus settlement.

Plaxis calculation

Plaxis ouput
Plaxis curve
Plaxis analysis
Conclusion
Figure 3.3 Flow chart of methodology.

3.3

PLAXIS INPUT

Initial step needed for input using PLAXIS to set up the parameters need to simulate the stone
column, geotextile casing, and soil layer. But first we needed to set up the model in 15-triangular
node element and the model is set up to axisymmetry model and gives the name of the project.
The process of this setting is shown in Figure 3.4 below.

56

Figure 3.4 Setup process of project in PLAXIS.

After everything is set, the next process is to draw the layout of the model. The model is draw by
half of its diameter and horizontal length as it is an axisymmetry model not a plain strain model.
The model properties are set based on these parameters:

Model properties:
1. diameter column : 0.010 m
2. diameter model : 0.15 m
3. Column and Soft Soil material
4. Use rigid plate on top of the model and cover the whole model.
The process of drawing the layout for the stone column and soil are shown in Figure 3.5 by using
geometry line tools in PLAXIS.

57

Figure 3.5 Drawing process using geometry line tools.

After finished drawing the shape of stone column and the soil based on its diameter, length and
height set on the model properties, the next step is to apply plate at from the top corner of the
stone column across the soil until it reach the top corner of the soil. The plate is draw by using
plate tool. From Figure 3.6 we can see the process of drawing plate across the model and take
note that the plate line is the line with blue color. The plate then is set based on parameter
mention before.

58

Figure 3.6 Process of applying plate at top of model.

After drawing the top plate line, the geotextile is applied at the right side of stone column from
top to bottom of stone column. The geotextile are draw by using geotextile tools provide in
PLAXIS. The geotextile line is in yellow color and can be seen in Figure 3.7. The geotextile
properties such as its stiffness value will be set up later.

59

Figure 3.7 Drawing process of geotextile line to the model.

After applying geotextile layer to the stone column, the model is set to not having horizontal
movement by applying standard fixities which will prohibit the type of movement. The standard
fixities can be seen in Figure 3.8 below where the fixities line is green in color. It surrounds the
side of stone column, bottom of the model and side of the soil but does not cover the top of the
model. Next process after applying standard fixities is applying material at each stone column
and the soil. The parameters for each material are tabulate in Table 3.1 below for the soil and
stone column material. The process of applying material at each model is shown at Figure 3.9.
The stone column materials are set with black color while soils are set to having soft chocolate
color.
60

Figure 3.8 Standard fixities apply at the model.

Table 3.1: Material properties for soil and stone column material.
Properties

Soil

Stone column

Material model

Mohr-coulomb

Mohr-coulomb

Material type

Undrained

Drained

saturated

18 kN/m

17 kN/m

unsaturated

16 kN/m

15 kN/m

kx

0.000005833 m/hr

0.079 m/hr

ky

0.000001942 m/hr

0.079 m/hr

61

Figure 3.9 Apply process of material.

After process of applying material are done and both the plate material and geotextile material
are set, distributed load are applied on the top of the plate across the length of the model like at
Figure 3.10. After that the mesh are produced by applying the generate mesh button on PLAXIS.
The generated mesh can be seen at Figure 3.11. The next process is setting up initial condition
for the model. The closed flow boundaries are applied at all side surfaces except at the top
surface of the column to allow movement of water up to the stone column. Ground water table
are set at the top of the soil. Figure 3.12 shows the detail figure of initial condition setting. After
setting up initial condition, we set up the setting for calculation process which is the last step for
input process. The set up of calculation are shown in Figure 3.13. Noted that plate and geogrid
both need to be activated by define button in the parameter section. The geotextile materials are
set its stiffness values at the lowest test value for the first calculation and increase its value for
the next and next calculation. The stiffness value is varied to achieve the objective of this
research which is to assess the impact of various modulus of geotextile to the parameters of the
soil.
62

Figure 3.10 Distribute load applied at top of model.

Figure 3.11 Generated mesh model.

63

Figure 3.12 Initial condition for the model.

Figure 3.13 Calculation process of PLAXIS.

64

3.4

PLAXIS OUTPUT

The next process after calculation is the output process. Output process produced the deformed
mesh due to stress and applied load. The magnitude of deformation or settlement is based on the
various parameters such as value of distributed load, parameters of soil, stone column and
stiffness value of geotextile. Figure 3.14 below show the deformed mesh of the whole model.
The total displacement of the soil is stated at the output. From the Figure 3.14 it can be clearly
seen that the node element of the model are move from their original place due to deformation of
the model. The output also can show many types of figure such as excess pore pressure behavior
of the soil shown at Figure 3.15.

Figure 3.14 Deformed mesh of finite element model.

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Figure 3.15 Excess pore pressure occurred at the soil.

3.5

PLAXIS CURVE

After the output process, the project is saved and proceeds to the final process of PLAXIS
software that is PLAXIS curve. PLAXIS curve function is to produce graph based on different
parameters such as settlement, excess pore pressure, time, stress, strain, step, force, acceleration,
velocity, etc. Users are free to added new parameters which are not listed at default parameters in
PLAXIS. Users also are free to set any parameters against another parameters and user also be
given freedom to set type of graph curve, number of graph line, color of the graph line, and many
more features which user can altered any times as they wish. Figure 3.16 shows the input for the
PLAXIS curve section.

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Figure 3.16 PLAXIS Curve input interface.

After input the parameter for the graph, PLAXIS will produce the graph based on data obtain
through the initial process of input, calculation and output. The whole process is repeated starting
back from the calculation part where the stiffness values of geotextile are increased and new
graph will be produced. The new graph will be different from the old graph in term of graph
gradient as result for both are difference due to both having different stiffness value of geotextile
layer. The process is repeated for about 5 times and each time the process is repeated, the value
of geotextile will be increase so that from the result we can assess the impact of various modulus
of geotextile encasing the stone column to improving the condition of the soil.

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3.6

CONCLUSION

After the graph had being plot by PLAXIS software curve program, the conclusion could be
produce whether the objective of this research would be achieved or not. At this part, the
conclusion for evaluation of stone column with various modulus of geotextile encasing the stone
column could be determine. From the conclusion, the recommendation can be made as whether
to give encouragement for engineers to used higher stiffness value of encased stone column
compared to the lower stiffness one or discourage them if the result stated that increase in
stiffness give adverse impact to performance of stone column.

CHAPTER 4
68

RESULT AND ANALYSIS

4.1

Introduction

Analysis of various modulus of geotextile is performing in this chapter. Result will be discussed
thoroughly with many details, figures and tables. Analysis is compared and supported by past
and recent research to verify the result.

4.2

Settlement versus time analysis

Figure 4.1 Settlement-time graph.

From Figure 4.1, settlement of the soil reduces as the stiffness of the geotextile reinforcement
increase. From the graph we can see that by increasing the stiffness value from 200 to 400 does
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improve the soil greatly in term of settlement. Increasing the stiffness value of geotextile to 600,
800 and 1000 will still improve the soil settlement behavior but the increment is not significant
between those stiffness values in term of improving the soil settlement. By increasing stiffness
value from 200 to 400 the increment is 83%, from 400 to 600 the increment is much lower that is
5.6%, from 600 to 800 is 3.2% and from 800 to 1000 is 7.3%. By looking at the percentage,
increasing the geotextile stiffness value by larger margin for example from 800 to 1600 will be
more beneficial in term of performance wise and financial wise. The trend of this graph also had
similar trend with settlement time graph by Castro et al. (2013) at Figure 4.2.

Figure 4.2 Settlement time graph by Castro et al. (2013).

4.3

Excess pore pressure versus time analysis

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Figure 4.3 show the excess pore pressure versus time graph. From the graph, we can see that
excess pore pressure build up at the soil decreasing as the stiffness of the geotextile encasement
of the stone column increase. This is due to ability of stone column to absorb the applied stress
which the rate of absorption is greatly improve when encased by higher stiffness value of
geotextile. The excess pore pressure build up at the soil increase during the plastic stage which
the excess pore pressure built up is directly effect by the intensity of applied load. During
consolidation stage the excess pore pressure then showing gradual decreasing until excess pore
pressure achieve a value near to zero which shown that the soil had achieved a completed
consolidation.

Figure 4.3 Excess pore pressure-time graph.

4.4

Effective vertical stress versus time analysis

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Figure 4.4 show the effective stress versus time graph at the soil. From the graph, we can see that
increasing the stiffness of geotextile encasing the stone column reduce the effective stress on the
soil. By increasing stiffness value from 200 to 400 the increment in reduction of effective stress
at the soil is 38.7%, from 400 to 600 the increment is 25.8%, from 600 to 800 is 19.35% and
from 800 to 1000 is 16%. Increasing the stiffness from 200 to 400 can cause great reduction of
effective stress on the soil but increasing the stiffness from 400 to 600 does not give significant
change of effective stress on the soil. This shows that using higher increment for example
increasing the geotextile stiffness from 400 to 2000 will give more significant improvement.
Figure 4.5 show the effective stress acting on the column, as the effective stress increase the
stiffness of geotextile increase. This shown that increase in stiffness of geotextile can improve
the ability of the stone column to absorb the load applies at nearby soil thus reducing the
settlement of the soil.

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Figure 4.4 Effective stress-time graph at the soil.

Figure 4.5 Effective stress-time graph at the encased stone column.

4.5

Effective stress displacement relationship

Effective Stress-displacement graph for the encased stone column is shown at figure 4.6. This
graph illustrates the performance of the reinforced stone column in term of load carrying
capacity. Increasing the stiffness of geotextile improve the load carrying capacity of the stone
column. This is due to ability of higher stiffness of geotextile to provide better confinement
pressure and thus reduce the tendency of the stone column to bulge which can improve the
ability of the stone column to transfer vertical stress to the lower part of the soil. Increasing the
stiffness of geotextile to from 200 to 400 improve the load carrying capacity greatly compare to

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400 to 600, 600 to 800 and 800 to 1000. The trend of the graph also confirmed by Aminaton et
al. (2013) at Figure 4.7.

Figure 4.6 Effective stress-displacement graph at the encased stone column.

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Figure 4.7 Stress-displacement graph at the encased stone column

(Aminaton et al., 2013).

4.6

Hoop force analysis

Hoop force for various stiffness of geotextile also being analyzed in this research. The hoop
forces for all geotextile with different stiffness are tabulated in Table 4.1 below. As we can see
from the table that hoop force acting on geotextile increase as the geotextile stiffness increase.
This had also being confirmed by Malarvizhi and Ilamparuthi (2010) through his founding at
Figure 4.8.

Figure 4.8 Hoop force for different stiffness geotextile. (Malarvizhi and Ilamparuthi, 2010).

Malarvizhi and Ilamparuthi (2007) stated in his research that lateral deformation of stone
column occurred when load in vertical direction are induce at the column. This caused the stone
column to be more susceptible to bulge if insufficient horizontal pressure is provided by the
surrounding soil. Thus by reinforcing the stone column with geotextile it will offer adequate
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lateral confinement to prevent the stone column to bulge. Hoop force produced on the geotextile
layer when stone column deform in horizontal direction which produced horizontal strain. Table
4.2 below show that increase the stiffness of geotextile encasing the stone column reduces the
lateral deformation of the encased stone column. This prove that increasing stiffness of geotextile
can reduce the tendency of the encased stone column from bulging, which result from increasing
hoop force induced by the geotexile.

Table 4.1: Hoop force for geotextile with different modulus.

Geotextile Stiffness

Hoop Force

(kN/m^2)

(kN/m)

200

2.08

400

2.42

600

2.98

800

3.40

1000

3.68

Table 4.2: Lateral deformation for encased stone column.

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Geotextile Stiffness

Deformation(Ux)

(kN/m^2)

(mm)

200

0.0412

400

0.0142

600

0.0127

800

0.0112

1000

0.0100

CHAPTER 5

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

5.1 Conclusion

This research aim is to analyze the relationship between displacement and time, excess pore
pressure versus time, effective stress versus time, and effective stress versus displacement. Hoop
force and lateral displacement also had being analyzed in this research. The following conclusion
are made based on the result obtained.

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1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.
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7. 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.

5.2 Recommendation

For future study on various modulus of geotextile encasing stone column, it is recommended to
do the following things order to extent the scope of this study:
1. Use different type of stone material for the encased stone column to see the interaction
between stone column material geotextile reinforcement.
2. Studies on impact of encased stone column in improving double layer or triple layer of
soil. Each layer consists of different type of soil.
3. Produce stress versus strain graph and do analysis based on the graph obtained and
compared the result with other or similar research.
4. Instead of focusing on interaction of single encased stone column, future studies can
explore the interaction of encased stone column in a group which consists of 2 or more
encased stone column.
5. Applied different type of loads at the model. For example applying point load at different
point of the soil.
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