Consolidation of Sand and Aggregate as

Stone Column Material

M. A. Mohamad Ismail
School of Civil Engineering, Engineering Campus, University Sains Malaysia,
14300, Nibong Tebal, Penang, Malaysia.
ceashraf@eng.usm.my

H. M. Yee
Faculty of Civil Engineering, Universiti of Teknologi MARA, Malaysia
yhooimin@yahoo.com

L. K. Ng
School of Civil Engineering, Engineering Campus, University Sains Malaysia,
14300, Nibong Tebal, Penang, Malaysia.
Lye_khong@hotmail.com

N. A. Ramli
Faculty of Civil Engineering, Universiti of Teknologi MARA, Malaysia
eyeni_nurul@yahoo.com

ABSTRACT
Stone column either made up of aggregate or sand material could accelerate the rate of
consolidation in soft clays. Aggregate and sand have high permeability where both of
materials able to allow pore water pressure to dissipates quickly from the cohesive soils
compare with silts and clays. A unit cell is used to study the consolidation under distribution
load for aggregate and sand column. An axisymmetric consolidation model using PLAXIS
software simulation is used to compare the increasing rate of consolidation for both materials.
Mohr Coulombs modelling type is used for analyzing the improvement of the soil
characteristic. Sand column is a suitable material to be used for increasing the consolidation
rate and shorting the time of consolidation process.

KEYWORDS: consolidation; permeability; soft clays and stone column.

INTRODUCTION
Ground improvement method are widely use for improving soft subsoil such as soft
clays since nowadays there is a lot of development being constructed on soft clays due to lack of
suitable subsoil. Soft clays had the disadvantages where the soil need a longer time to complete
their consolidation process since it has low permeability and thus had made it as a major
problems in geotechnical engineering where it need to be solve by using ground improvement
method such as stone column. This method was commonly use because of their simplicity in
construction, economical and effectiveness in improving the soft subsoil. Consolidation is a
volume reduction process due to dissipation of pore water pressure from the soil. This process can
be accelerates by using stone column but what had become indecisive is on how the material use
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as a stone column may able to accelerate the process. Aggregate and sand is used as a stone
column material to determine the suitable material for increasing the consolidation rate.

LITERATURE REVIEW
Material used as stone column may contribute in effectiveness of the column. Ng et al.
have mentioned that study on different type of materials used as stone column need to be carried
out for determination of the most effective material and for material selection purpose. Dipty and
Girish have studied on different type of materials and reported that stones as the most suitable
material used for stone column construction. Installation of stone column may minimize post
construction settlement by accelerating the consolidation process. Mokhtari and Kalantari have
studied on soft soil stabilization by installing stone column. Stone column is successfully used for
construction on soft soils. Soft clay characteristic can be improved using stone column.
installation. Young Modulus characteristics in soft clay have been examined by Bouassida et al.
Installation of stone column in soft clay results in increasing of Young Modulus characteristics.
Young Modulus is a stiffness parameter for in situ soils where the degree of improvement is
affected due to installation of stone column. The parameter was analyzed by PLAXIS software
using axisymmetric cell model with fifteen nodes triangular elements. Ng et al. have conclude
that, for further development of stone column performance, a study of column materials need to
be carried out to determine its influence as stone column and also for selection of economical and
effective column materials.

MATERIALS
Table 1: Properties of Materials Used
Materials
Clay

sat
unsat
3
(kN/m ) (kN/m3)
18.6
14.5

k
E
(m/day)
(kN/m2)
6.745E-4
2000

2
(kN/m ) (degree)
35
5

(degree)
0

Sand

19.0

16.0

20.347

20000

0.25

41.85

11.85

Aggregate

18.8

18.8

2.956

55000

0.20

49.02

19.02

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METHODOLOGY
A unit cell concept is used as a numerical analysis by using PLAXIS program. By
considering the stone column is being installed in triangular arrangement, the influence zone is
calculated as in Figure 1(b). Mohr-Coulomb is used as a soil behavior modeling type for
determination and comparison of consolidation rate between aggregate and sand. The stone
column material is representing as drained behavior where the soft clay is undrained type. In preprocessing process, the model is defined as an axisymmetric with fifteen nodes. The nodes are
used to calculate the displacement during the calculation process. The basics material properties
for Mohr- Coulomb modeling is specify in input part before meshing is generate. A uniform load
of 8, 16,32,64,96,128,160 and 192 kN/m2 is applied for the entire area of stone column and soft
clay. Standard fixities, closed flow and closed consolidations boundary are assigned where the
excess of pore water pressure is allowed only in two directions. After the generation of finite
element model, the post-processing process is executed for viewing the results. In the calculation
part, the plastic and consolidation analysis is carried out. For plastic calculation, elastic-plastic
deformation analysis is being calculated without taking into account the excess pore pressure
meanwhile for the consolidation calculation, the dissipations of pore water pressure is analyze for
one day time spans. Construction stage is used as loading types for representing accurate and
realistic stimulation using various loading.

Stone Column

150mm

Clay

65.63mm
(a)

(b)

Figure 1: Model of the unit cell (a) Triangular arrangement of stone column (b)

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RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

By simulating the installation of different types of stone column materials, the data of
consolidation is achieved. The data is compared using the Taylors method theory. The square
root of time graph is plotted to determine the coefficient of consolidation, Cv. The result for
stimulation of clay without installation of stone column is compare with the stimulation when the
stone column is being installed. Sand and aggregate is used as two different types of stone
column material to determine the most effective material that can be used to accelerate the
consolidation rate.

(a)

(b)

Figure 2: FEM Mesh for clay with single column (a) FEM Deformed Mesh (b)
Figures 3, 4 and 5 show the simulation clay without stone column, clay with sand column and
clay with aggregate column, respectively. From the result, it shows that the coefficient of
consolidation is increase when the stone column is being installed.
Permeability of the material is one of the factors that contributing the effectiveness of the
stone column. Sand and aggregate have high permeability compare with fine soils such as silts
and clays. Permeability is an ability of the soils to allow pore water pressure to pass through it. In
soft clays, the consolidation may need several years to complete the process since soft clays is
categorized as fine soils with low permeability where the dissipation of pore water pressure is
very slowly. Due to that, by installing stone column using material which has higher permeability
than its surrounding soil may expedite the process. Coarse soils such as sand and aggregate with
high permeability will act as vertical drains and allow the pore water pressure to dissipates
quickly from soft clays and accelerate the consolidation process. When the load is applied, the

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pore water pressure will increase then it may drain into soil regions with lower pressure. Thus,
during at that time, the strength of soft clays may increase just like cohesionless soil since the soil
particles is forced to get closer together and become stiffer.

Settlement vs Square Root Time

load 8kN/m2

Settlement (mm)

load 16kN/m2
load 32kN/m2
load 64kN/m2
load 96 kN/m2
load 128kN/m2
load 160kN/m2
Square root of Time (min)

load 192kN/m2

Figure 3: Clay

Settlement vs Square Root Time

load 8kN/m2

Settlement (mm)

load 16kN/m2
load 32kN/m2
load 64kN/m2
load 96kN/m2
load 128kN/m2
load 160kN/m2
Square root of Time (min)

Figure 4: Sand

load 192kN/m2

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Settlement vs Square Root Time

load 8kN/m2

Settlement (mm)

load 16kN/m2
load 32kN/m2
load 64kN/m2
load 96kN/m2
load 128kN/m2
load 160kN/m2
Square root of Time (min)

load 192kN/m2

Figure 5: Aggregate
Table 2 indicates the results obtained from the square root time graph. The CV for clay, sand
and aggregate are 656.43 mm2 / min, 1886.29 mm2 / min and 110.64 mm2 / min, respectively. The
highest coefficient of consolidation value is shown when the sand column is being installed.

Table 2: Coefficient of consolidation varying load

2

Load (kN/m )
8
16
32
64
96
128
160
192
Total

Clay
97.35
101.36
95.15
105.62
77.80
47.70
71.63
59.82
656.43

Sand
252.11
710.88
172.39
190.80
177.79
126.12
123.70
132.50
1886.29

Aggregate
220.63
125.30
144.76
172.39
137.03
142.30
79.62
78.61
1100.64

CONCLUSION
Stone column installation in soft clays may improve the soil characteristic. The consolidation
process can be expedited when installing the stone column. Sand column is the suitable material
to be used as stone column in accelerating the consolidation rate.

REFERENCES
1. M.A. Mohamad Ismail, L.K. Ng and H.M Yee (2013), Different Types of Materials
used for Stone Column, Applied Mechanics and Materials, Vols. 405-408, 2013,
pp.155-157.
2. D.S. Issaac and M.S. Girish (2009), Suitability of Different Materials for Stone Column
Construction, EJGE Vol 14, 2009, p. 2-12.

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3. M. Mokhtari and B. Kalantari (2012), Soft Soil Stabilization using Stone ColumnsA review, EJGE Vol 17, 2012, p. 1459-1466.
4. Z. Guetif, M. Bouassida and J.M. Debats (2007), Improve Soft Clay Characteristics due
to Stone Column Installation, Computers and Geotechnics Vol. 34, 2007, p. 104-111.
5. N.P. Balaam and J.R. Booker, (1981), Analysis of Rigid Rafts Supported by Granular
Piles, International Journal for Numerical and Analytical Methods in Geomechanics,
Vol 5, 1981, p. 379-403.

APPENDIX I. LIST OF NOTATIONS

The following symbols are used in this paper
sat
= Wet soil unit weight
unsat = Dry soil unit weight
k
= Permeability
E
= Youngs Modulus

= Poissons Ratio
c
= Cohesion

= Friction Angle

= Dilatancy Angle
= Coefficient of Consolidation
CV

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