Consolidation of stone-columns-reinforced soft soils under haversine cyclic loadings Available to Purchase

A rigorous semi-analytical method is proposed for the consolidation analysis of soft soils reinforced with stone columns, which is subjected to haversine cyclic loadings. The closed-form solutions of effective vertical stress, excess pore pressure, and average degree of consolidation are derived using Fourier harmonic analysis, where the effects of the smear and well resistance of stone columns on the consolidation behaviour are considered. From a numerical parametric study, it is indicated that the consolidation behaviour of the clay layer reinforced with stone columns is dependent on the physical and mechanical properties of soft soils and stone columns, and the applied cyclic loadings. The numerical results also show that an increase in number of loading cycles can cause the response of reinforced soft soil to achieve a steady state, whereas the frequency, the elastic modulus ratio, the permeability ratio, and the radius ratio of stone columns to soil influence the consolidation behaviour of soft clay reinforced with stone columns.