Analysis and settlement of group of partially stiffened floating and end bearing granular piles

Abstract

In the era of modern time where due to rapid growth in population, expanding industrialization etc. within the same limited resources including the land resources enforces the mankind to use the land resources in an economical manner, leading to demand of use of areas having soft soils, dumping places, wetlands, landfill sites (after closure) and even to go for vertical expansion rather than horizontal in terms of multistory buildings, tall structures etc. causing imposition of huge loads, which cannot be supported by the existing soil at such places. In past it has been found that several structures resting on soft soils suffer from excessive settlements as well as differential settlements due to their low shear strength and high compressibility. newlineThis problem has become a challenge to geotechnical engineers in particular in construction of foundations for different types of civil engineering structures resting on these soils. Many foundation techniques and solutions were proposed by several researchers and practitioners for preventing damage to structures resting on these soils. However, most of them are found to have their own limitations in terms of technicality and effectiveness and sometimes the cost effectiveness because it is an another big issue, at least for developing countries like ours. Among several remedial techniques promulgated to alleviate the damages caused by these soft soils, granular piled footings have been investigated in recent times for their effectiveness by various investigators. newlineGranular piles/stone columns are one of the most versatile, cost effective technique for engineering solution of the ground. Granular piles improve the behavior of the ground by increasing bearing capacity, reducing settlements, accelerating consolidation, and mitigating liquefaction related damages by reinforcement and densification effects. newline newline newline