The 12th International Conference of International Association for Computer Methods and Advances in Geomechanics (IACMAG) 1-6 October,

2008 Goa, India

Ground Improvement of Clayey Soil Formations Using Stone Columns: A Case Study from Greece
H. Saroglou, A.A. Antoniou
National Technical University of Athens, Department of Geotechnical Engineering, Athens, Greece

S. K. Pateras
General Consulting Ltd "ISTRIA", Greece Keywords: Ground improvement, stone columns, primary consolidation settlements ABSTRACT: This article presents the ground improvement using stone columns for the construction of a new highway road from Keratea to Lavrio, in Attika peninsula, Greece. In particular various methods were examined in order to improve the poor geotechnical characteristics of the subsoil as well as to lower the water table, in which an embankment of maximum height of 3m was constructed. In general, the subsoil comprises of soft clays of low plasticity with intercalations of silty to clayey sands of medium density with gravel. The calculated settlements were large enough when using conventional construction methods and would prolong the construction period. Thus this method assumed to be more appropriate because of the nature of the ground as well as the shorten construction time.

1 Introduction
Various ground improvement methods have been selected to provide soil strength improvement, mitigation of total settlements, reduce the construction cost as well as to shorten the construction time. For soft and cohesive soils in subsiding environments, soil improvement by reinforcement (i.e. sand compaction piles), by admixtures (i.e. deep mixing method) and by dewatering (i.e. vertical drains) are applicable. The procedures for modeling and selecting the most suitable ground improvement techniques are presented on a chart shown in Figure 1 (Bergado et al., 1994). In the case of infrastructure on embankment fill, ground improvement is not limited to portions below ground but also includes improvement of fill soils above ground by reinforcing them with geotextiles or grids, as well as by the use of lightweight materials such as expanded polysterene. The consolidation settlement of soft clay subsoil due to very low permeability takes a long time to complete. To shorten this consolidation time, vertical drains are installed with/or without preloading by surcharge embankment or vacuum pressure. Vertical drains create drainage paths which can be installed by one of several methods and which can have a variety of physical characteristics (Rixner et al., 1986). Immediately after the preloading, an excess pore pressure is developed, and the pore water pressure is deducted during the consolidation of the clay due to the hydraulic gradients created by the preloading. Thus the water can flow faster in the horizontal direction towards the drain and then flow freely along the drains vertically towards the permeable drainage layers. Consequently, the installation of vertical drains reduces the length of the drainage paths and, thereby, reduces the time to complete the consolidation process. Stone columns are constructed by compacted sand or gravel, which is inserted into the soft clay foundation formation by the displacement method and thus create a composite ground (Baumann and Bauer, 1974). After the application of loads the pile deforms by bulging into the subsoil strata and distributes the stresses at the upper portion of the soil profile rather than transferring the stresses into the deeper layers. This mechanism develops whether the tip of the pile is floating in the soft soil or fully penetrating and bearing on a firm layer. The lateral confining stress, which supports the granular pile, is the ultimate passive resistance that the surrounding soil can mobilize as the pile bulges outwards. Moreover, other failure mechanisms of single stone columns are: the general shear failure as well as the punching failure (Barksdale and Bachus, 1983).

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Figure 1. Selection flow of deep ground improvement technique.

2 Ground conditions
The study area is situated between the city of Keratea and city of Lavrio, at Attika peninsula, Greece. The alignment of the highway road is near to the sea (Evoikos gulf), at a distance of less than 400m, in an area, which used to be low land environment before the construction of the highway. The total length of the embankment was approximately 600m (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Aerial view of the highway road alignment In order to design the highway embankment, geotechnical site investigation was necessary. The site investigation comprised of three boreholes that reached a maximum depth of 20m. The soil classification of every geotechnical unit, which was encountered during the site investigation, as well as its physical and mechanical properties are
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presented in Table 1: Table 1. Geotechnical parameters of soil units encountered in the study area
Unit I Soil classification CL Physical and mechanical properties LL = 25 33, PI = 12 19 w = 13 26% cu = 40 KPa, NSPT = 7 10 0 c = 0 KP and = 25 , Es = 5 MP LL = 27 32, PI = 13-14 w = 24 26% cu = 25 KPa, NSPT = 1 3 0 c = 0 KP and = 25 , Es = 4.5MP LL = 22 38, PI = 5 22 w = 12 25% cu = 25 KPa, NSPT = 1 7 0 c = 0 KP and = 25 , Es = 3 MP Es = 39 MP -

Ia

CL

II

CL

III IV

GC Gneiss, mica schist weathered mantle

The grain size analysis of the materials encountered on site is shown in Figure 3. Based on the range of soils suitable for vibro-compaction and vibro-replacement method as proposed by Baumann and Bauer (1974), the most appropriate method of ground improvement, of the soil encountered on the study site, is the vibroreplacement method. Usually this method is suitable for soft cohesive soils (with silt/clay greater than 18%) and pit lenses using wet process in unstable hole to form stone columns. Since the undrained strength of soils on site is greater than 7 KPa, there will be adequate radial support for the column to be constructed.

Figure 3.Soil classification of materials on site and ranges of application of improvement methods.

2.1

Settlements

Due to poor mechanical properties of subsoil the maximum calculated settlements were 15 cm, for a 3m maximum height of the embankment. Moreover the primary consolidation settlements were 14cm and their completion was estimated to almost sixteen months. Because of the urgent construction of the highway (time restrain of a period of 4 months), the ground improvement by using stone columns was selected.

3 Ground improvement 3.1 Design of stone columns

A parametric analysis with stone columns of D = 1.0m in equilateral triangular pattern is presented in Table 2. The equivalent circle has a diameter of:

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De = 1.05 * S

(1)

where S is the spacing of stone columns. The area replacement ratio, , is defined as the ratio of the granular pile area over the whole area of the equivalent cylindrical unit within the cell and expressed as:

As As + Ac
2

(2)

where As is the horizontal area of a granular pile and Ac is the horizontal area of the clayey ground surrounding the pile. Moreover, can be calculated by the equation:

D = 2 3 S

(2a)

Moreover the composite angle of internal friction avg and the composite cohesion on the shear surface cavg are expressed as follows:

avg = tan 1 ( s a tan s )

c avg = (1 a )c
where s is the ratio of stress in the pile and n is the stress concentration factor, defined as:

(3) (4)

s =

n 1 + (n 1)a
n=
s c

(5)

(6)

while, s is the stress in the granular pile and c is the stress in the surrounding cohesive soil. The values of parameters n and s are obtained empirically. Specifically, the value of parameter n for column spacing S = 2.0 m is equal to 7.5 and for S = 2.5 m it is equal to 10. According to Barksdale & Bachus (1983) the stress concentration factor ranged from 2 to 5, while Aboshi et al. (1979) and Bergado et. al. (1987) obtained higher values of as much as 9. The value of parameter , calculated from equation (2), is equal to 0.227 and 0.145 for column spacing of S = 2.0 m and 2.5 m respectively.

Table 2. Properties of the untreated/treated soil units.

Shear strength parameters Treated ground Treated ground S = 2.0 m S = 2.5 m cavg/c cavg/c avg/ avg/ 0 0 () (kPa) () (kPa) 10.8/29 30.9/0 6.9/27.6 34.2/0 10.8/29.2 19.3/0 6.9/27.7 21.4/0 10.8/29.6 19.3/0 6.9/28.1 21.4/0

Soil Layer

Untreated ground u/ cu//c (kPa) 40/0 25/0 25/0

0/25 0/25 0/25

3.2 Stability analysis

Generally, for the stability analysis of the embankment founded on treated soil, two methods can be applied: the profile method and the average shear strength method. In the profile method (or discrete soil-stone column element method), each row of the stone columns is converted into an equivalent continuous strip. Each strip of granular and cohesive soils is then analyzed using its actual geometry and material properties. The stress concentration in the stone columns results in an increase in resisting shear force, thus the effect of the stress concentration is being handled by placing thin, fictitious strips of soil above the in-situ soil and stone columns at the embankment interface. In the average shear strength method the shear strength parameters are:

c avg = c * a
tan( )avg = s a s tan s + c a c tan c avg avg = s + c (1 )

(7) (8) (9)

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where s and c are the saturated unit weight of the granular materials and in the in situ soil. The stone column properties, which were assumed for the analysis, are the following: unit weight s = 22 /m 0 and angle of internal friction s = 40 .
3

The analysis was carried out using both the average shear strength method, by calculating composite values for the shear strength parameters of treated ground, and the discrete soil-stone column element method, by considering undrained shear strength for the soil and drained shear strength for the stone column. Moreover, in this method the embankment loads were evenly distributed between the stone columns and the soft clay, in the analyses (as mentioned in Christoulas et al., 1997). The slope stability analysis was carried out using the software Slide of Rocscience Inc. The Bishop limit equilibrium method was utilized. The ground water level was considered in the analysis at a depth of 0.5 m, while the seismic acceleration of the area was a = 0.16 g. The slope angle of the embankment is 1 : 1.5 (H : V). The results of the stability analyses are summarized in Table 3. Table 3. Slope stability analysis.
Untreated Ground conditions Undrained/ Drained Static loading conditions with groundwater Seismic loading conditions 3.15/1.58 2.54/1.30 Factor of Safety Discrete soil-column elements uniform loading S = 2.0m 3.51 3.00 S = 2.5m 3.44 2.97 Composite values S = 2.0m Undrained/ Drained 3.19/1.86 2.75/1.53

S = 2. 5m Undrained/ Drained 3.17/1.76 2.74/1.45

The analysis implies that the slope stability of the embankment is improved by the installation of stone columns both at static and seismic loading conditions. An example from the stability analysis of treated ground using the discrete soil-column elements method at spacing of stone columns equal to S = 2.5 m is presented in Figure 4.

3.3 Settlements
The settlement reduction ratio is expressed as:

R=

St S0

(10)

where St is the settlement of the composite ground and S0 is the settlement of the unimproved ground. The settlement reduction ratio was estimated using the diagram of Aboshi and Suematsu (1985) and was determined to lie in the range of 0.46 to 0.59 depending on the spacing S of the stone columns. Thus, the total settlement is presented in Table 4. Table 4. Total settlements
Spacing S Total settlement (cm) Primary consolidation settlement (cm) S = 2.00 m 6.91 6.27 S = 2.50m 8.94 8.12

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Figure 4.Slope stability analysis of treated ground at spacing S = 2.5 m (Discrete soil-column elements-uniform loading).

3.4 Rate of primary consolidation settlement

Several studies have assumed that stone columns could accelerate the consolidation process in the same way as sand drains. In a cohesive soil reinforced with stone columns, pore water moves towards the pile in a curved path having both vertical and radial components of flow. The average degree of primary consolidation could be handled by considering the vertical and radial consolidation effects separately as expressed by the following equation (Carillo, 1942):

U = 1 (1 Uz )(1 Ur )

(11)

Where, U is the average degree of consolidation considering both vertical and radial flow and Uz is the average degree of consolidation considering vertical flow, while Ur is the average degree of consolidation considering radial flow. Moreover the equations of Barron (1948) and Hansbo (1981) were used in the present analyses. Several assumptions were made for the calculations as follows: The effective diameter of stone columns was reduced to 0.50m, due to penetration of clayey material to the external zone of the column. -4 3 The water diversion of the stone column is equal to 10 m /s. The deceleration of the water inflow, because of the generation of disturbance zone around columns during their construction as well as the parallel to penetration position of the clayey material. Finally by using cv = 3.1 m2/year ch = 3 * cv = 9.3 m2/year, and by assuming t = 4 months, Uz is equal to 0.22 and Ur is 0.88. Finally, the average degree of primary consolidation is equal to 91%.

4 Conclusions
The scope of this paper was to examine the behaviour of a treated soil profile by stone columns at a construction site which is part of the new highway road from Keratea to Lavrio, in Attika peninsula, Greece. The ground comprises of soft clays of low plasticity with intercalations of silty to clayey sands of medium density with gravel. The alignment of the highway road is near to the sea and belongs to an area, which used to be low land environment before the construction of the highway. The maximum height of the embankment was 3 m and the total settlement in the untreated ground was estimated at 15 cm in a period of sixteen months. Since, the construction of the highway road posed a time restrain on the

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completion of primary consolidation settlements, ground improvement was inevitable. The ground improvement was decided to consist of stone columns to a depth of 14 m. For this purpose, parametric analyses were performed for different replacement ratios and the amount of settlements was reduced to 7 cm in a period of 4 months. Additionally, slope stability analysis was performed using the average shear strength method and the discrete soil-stone column element method, assuming even distribution of the embankment loads between the stone columns and the soft clay.

5 References
Aboshi H., Suematsu N. 1985. Sand compaction pile method: State of the art paper. Proc. 3 Intl. Geotechnical Seminar on Soil Improvement Methods, Nanyang Technological Institute, Singapore (Thailand). Barksdale R.D., Bachus R.C. 1983. Design and construction of stone columns. Report No. FHWA/RD-83/026, National, Technical Information Service, Springfield, Virginia, (USA). Barron R. A. 1948. Consolidation of fine-grained soils by drain wells. Transactions ASCE, 113, 718-724. Baumann V., Bauer G.E.A. 1974. The performance of foundation on various soils stabilized by vibrocompaction method. Canadian Geotechnical J. 11, 509-530. Bergado D.T., Sim S.H., Kalvade S. 1987. Improvement of soft Bangkok clay using granular piles in subsiding environment. th Proc. 5 Intl. Geotechnical Seminar on Case Histories in Soft Clay, Singapore, 219-226. Bergado D.T., Chai J.C., Alfaro M.C., Balasubramaniam A.S. 1994. Improvement techniques of soft ground in subsiding and lowland environment. Balkema, Rotterdam (The Netherlands). Carillo N. 1942. Simple two- and three- dimensional cases in the theory of consolidation of soils. J. of Math. & Phys. 21(1), 1-5. Christoulas St., Giannaros Ch., Tsiambaos G. 1997. Stabilization of embankment foundations by using stone columns. Geotechnical and Geological Engineering, 15(3), 247-258. Hansbo S. 1981. Consolidation of fine-grained soils by prefabricated drains. Proceedings, 10 International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, Stockholm, 3, 12-22. Rixner J.J., Kraemer S.R. Smith A.D. 1986. Prefabricated vertical drains, Vol. 1 (Engineering Guidelines). FHWA, Report No. FHWA-RD-86/168. Rocscience Inc, 1989 2003. Slide, 2D limit equilibrium slope stability for soil and rock slopes, User's Guide.
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