Behavior of Geogrid reinforced Stone columns

Nowadays, population growth and industrial development have led to a shortage of suitable land for geotechnical purposes in order to construct the structures. In such cases, the quality of inappropriate soil should be geotechnically improved. The requirements for improving of soil and the need for the development and application of new methods and modern technology have made soil improvement inevitable. The aim of this study is investigating the effect of the stone column (as a soil improvement method) on soil bearing capacity. Furthermore, the parametric analysis of the geosynthetic stone column and the load-settlement behavior of improved and unimproved soil are shown. In order to simulate stone columns, PLAXIS 2D software is used. Then the numerical results are compared with each other to do sensitivity analysis of every parameter. In this paper, some useful and technical comments are presented to achieve optimal design by analyzing the effective parameters such as spacing of columns, strength properties of soil and stone column and reinforcement stiffness.