Influence of Clogging on the Performance of Stone Column Improved Soft Ground

Soft ground reinforcement by stone columns not only acts as vertical stiffening material increasing the overall bearing capacity of soft ground, but they also assists in accelerating the radial consolidation. Migration of clay particles into the granular column initiated by high hydraulic gradient at the soil-column interface, results in clogging. The pore water flow through the columns is adversely affected by clogging due to significant decrease in the column permeability in the vicinity of the interface. The Authors have developed a novel numerical model based on unit cell analogy aided with the modified Cam-clay theory to incorporate the influence of clogging on the performance of stone column stabilized soft ground. Also, a series of large scale laboratory model tests has been conducted to study the clogging characteristics.