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International Journal on Emerging Technologies (Special Issue on ICRIET-2016) 7(2): 86-91(2016)

ISSN No. (Print) : 0975-8364
ISSN No. (Online) : 2249-3255

Ground Improvement Technique – A View of Stone Column Method

with the Case Study
P. Yuvaraj* and Prathamesh Raut**
*
Planning Engineering, AFCONS Infrastructure Limited, (Maharashtra), India
(Corresponding author: Prathamesh Raut, patham.raut93@gmail.com)
(Received 16 September, 2016 Accepted 19 October, 2016)
(Published by Research Trend, Website: www.researchtrend.net)
ABSTRACT: The ground improvement technique is a special method aimed at increasing bearing capacity,
reduce compressibility, decrease permeability, modify dynamic response, and reduce the risk of liquefaction
potential of subsoil and increase the stability of soil in slopes. Stone columns are a ground improvement
technique to improve the load bearing capacity and reduce the settlement of the soil. On many occasions, it
is noted that the local soil is by nature, unable to bear the proposed structure. Hence the use of ground
improvement techniques may be necessitated. Use of stone columns is one such technique.
Uttar Pradesh. Even man made deposits such as mine
I. INTRODUCTION
back-fill or land reclaimed by filling can have
Though the term Ground Improvement has been inadequate strength properties requiring ground
familiar to Civil Engineers, the design approach is still improvement.
empirical, mostly based on past experience. Well Major problems associated with such deposits are:
defined design procedure, constructions procedure and i. Low bearing capacity
codal provisions are yet to be developed. In the absence ii. Higher settlement (both total and
of above, execution of the same is difficult and differential)
sometimes lead to contract disputes. iii. High seepage losses
On the other hand, adequacy of Ground Improvement iv. Liquefaction during earthquake
for supporting even large structures has been proved v. Instability of foundation excavations
beyond doubts. Application of Ground Improvement is vi. Higher earth pressures on retaining
not only cheaper but reduces the construction time structures
significantly. In last two decades several major projects In early days, areas having such deposit were avoided
have been successfully built in the country adopting for construction. But with scarcity of land in urban
some of the ground improvement techniques. For each areas, we do not have choice and structures have to be
project, field trials and ground monitoring has been built on weak deposits. Pile foundation is of course a
carried out. This has generated large amount of field possible approach as it by pass the weak deposit and
data and built the confidence of geotechnical designer transfer the load on next competent layer. Where
for adopting ground improvement techniques. thickness of deposit is very large, pile foundation is
uneconomical and time consuming.
II. OCCURRENCE OF WEAK DEPOSITS Number of industrial plants in last one or two decades
Weak deposits can be defined as deposit, which has have successfully adopted one of the ground
one or more of the following: improvement techniques. This has resulted in either
i. Low shear strength elimination of RCC piles or considerable reduction in
ii. High compressibility number of RCC piles. Wherever ground improvement
iii. Susceptibility to liquefaction technique has been adopted, it is observed that there is
Such deposits are very common along the coastal reduction in construction cost and also the construction
region. Most of the marine deposits are of recent origin is faster.
and have not undergone much consolidation. As a Most of the plants in India are constructed based on
result, they have low shear strength or high Lumpsum Turn Key Project (LSTK). The work is
compressibility. Typical places with such soft clay awarded to the bidder who provides the lowest prices
deposits are Kandala, Nhava Sheva, Cochin, Ennore, but at the same time meeting all technical
Kakinada, Visakhapatnam, Haldia, Calcutta, etc. Even requirements. The construction agencies always look
some of the land deposits, particularly alluvial deposits forward to improve the ground wherever possible to
along the river belt have loose silt/sand to a large minimize the total cost.
depth. Typical example is large area of gangetic belt in
Yuvaraj and Raut 87
Numbers of techniques have been developed to
With Vibroflotation differential settlements are
improve the weak deposits such that required structure often in the order of 10% to 15% of total
can be placed without pile foundation. Following settlement.
section describes typical properties of weak deposits,
IV. METHODS OF STONE COLUMN
methods available for ground improvement and finally
few case studies on improvement carried out with Stone column technique has been developed very
different techniques. recently for improving bearing capacity and to reduce
settlement of weak deposits like soft clays and loose
III. STONE COLUMN
sands. It has been increasingly adopted in India. This
Stone columns are cylindrical columns made below method involves making bore holes in the weak
ground level which comprises of granular material of deposits and filling stone chips or gravel or mixture of
large size varying from 25 to 100 mm. A hole is made these and compacting them to create a column of
in the soft deposit by different techniques and then desired strength. These are constructed by adopting any
filled with stones in layers and compacted to form the one of the following methods.
complete column. When a structure is placed over the i. Non-displacement Method
area treated by stone columns, majority of the load (80- ii. Vibrofloated Stone Column.
90%) is transmitted to the stone column because of A. Non-displacement Method
their higher stiffness. Balance 10-20% of the load is In this method a hole of required size is accomplished
taken by clay deposit. With the help of this 10% of either by using bailer and casing or using rotary drill.
surcharge load, the soft clay is able to provide adequate Initially the borehole is advanced using a bailer while
confinement to the cylindrical column. The maximum its sides are supported by a casing. After the casing has
permissible actual stress on the columns can be reached the required level, sound and well-graded
predicted from the known theory. crushed stone of 75mm down size of 2 mm is placed in
The area treated by stone columns can be used to the borehole and casing is withdrawn at a certain length
support only flexible structures such as embankment, to ensure continuous formation of stone column. The
oil storage tank, etc. because, the settlement even after loose charge below the bottom of the casing is then
treatment with stone column can be large (50-200 mm). compacted by operating a rammer of suitable weight
Without stone columns the settlement could have been and fall within the casing, so as to obtain compaction
3-4 times higher and also the bearing capacity would energy of ground of 20 kN m per blow. The sequence
have been much less. of formation of stone column is shown in Figure 1.
A. Area application of Stone column
In Construction and Civil Engineering projects, stone
column can be used:

To improve the stability of embankments and
natural slopes.

To increase the bearing capacity of a site to make
it possible to use shallow foundation on the soil

For the reduction of total and differential
settlements.

For the reduction of liquefaction potential of
cohesionless soil.

To increase the time rate of settlement

B. Benefits of Stone Columns

Stone Columns are technical and potentially
economical alternatives to deep foundation.

Stone Columns are more economical than the
removal and replacement of deep poor bearing soil
on a large site.

Very useful where infrastructure does not permit
high vibration technique such as dynamic
compaction, deep blasting or piling. Fig. 1. Stages of construction of stone column by bored

Where time is critical to project start-up site piling equipment (Non – Displacement Method)
improvement can be achieved quicker by
B. Vibrofloated Stone Columns
vibroflotation than by pre-loading the soils.
In this method a hole is formed in the weak deposit

Stone Columns provide a vertical drainage path for
using a vibrofloat unit.
excess pore water pressure dissipation.

Yuvaraj and Raut 88

The vibrofloat equipment comprises of a vibrofloat crushed stone is poured. During the process of
probe, accompanying power supply, water pump, crane withdrawal of the needle, vibration and jetting is
and front - end loader as shown in Figure 2.The continuously maintained to ensure compaction of
vibrofloat is a poker vibrator normally of diameter granular fill. The withdrawal of the float is made in
varying from 300 mm to 450 mm and about 2m to short passes, preferably of about lm to ensure proper
3.5m long weighing 2 to 4 tones depending upon the compaction and uniformity along the entire length of
size (Figure 3). stone column. The sequence of constructing the column
by vibrofloat is as shown in Figure 4.

Fig.2. Vibroflotation equipment (After Brown,1976)

Fig. 4. Vibroflotation compaction Process (After

Brown, 1975).
V. DESIGN OF STONE COLUMN
Design of stone column reinforced ground involves
two aspects.
1. Estimation of load capacity of a stone column
2. Settlement Analysis.
A. Estimation of Load capacity of a stone column
Load capacity of the treated ground may be obtained
by summing up the contribution of each of the
following components for wide spread loads, such as
tankages and embankments:
a) Capacity of the stone column resulting from the
resistance offered by the surrounding soil against its
Fig. 3. 100HP Viroflot (After Brown,1976). lateral deformation (bulging) under axial load,
b) Capacity of the stone column resulting from -
By this method soil generally gets replaced by jetting increase in resistance offered by the surrounding soil
water used with the vibro float, size of the hole formed due to surcharge over it, and
can be controlled to a certain extent, by regulating
intensity of vibration, pressure and rate of penetration
of float. Diameter of holes formed varies generally
from 0.8m to 1.1m. After the vibrofloat has penetrated
to the desired level it is gradually withdrawn and
 Yuvaraj and Raut 89
c) Bearing support provided by the intervening soil Effective area of stone column including the
between the columns. intervening soil for triangular pattern = 0.866 S2
Capacity Based on Bulging of Column. Considering Area of intervening soil for each column, Ag is given
that the foundation soil is at failure when stressed by the following formula: Ag =0.866S2-( πD2/4)
horizontally due to bulging of stone column, the Safe load taken by the intervening soil,
limiting (yield) axial stress in the column is given by Q3 = qsafe Ag ………..(5)
the sum of the following: Overall safe load on each column and its tributary soil
σv = σ rL K pcol ………..(1) = Q1 + Q2 + Q3
σv = (σ ro +4Cu )K pcol B. Settlement Analysis
where σ v = limiting axial stress in the column when The settlement of stone column treated ground may be
it approaches shear failure due to bulging, and determined by either the empirical approach or the
σrL = limiting radial stress = (σ ro +4Cu ) concept of vertical average stress on the soft soil. In the
where Cu = undisturbed undrained shear strength of empirical method the settlement of treated ground is
clay surrounding the column, and computed as a percentage of untreated ground
σ ro = initial effective radial stress = K0σvo settlement. For a given spacing of stone column and
where K0 = average coefficient of lateral earth strength of the soft ground, the settlement of the
pressure for clays equal to 0.6 or alternatively, reinforced ground can be obtained from the Figure 5.
as determined from the relationship Ko = 1 -
sinφ,
where φ is the effective angle of internal friction of
soil, and
σvo = average initial effective vertical stress
considering an average bulge depth as 2 times
diameter of the column, that is σ vo = γ2D
where γ = effective unit weight of soil within the
influence zone.
K pcol= tan2 (45o + φc/2)
Where φc = angle of internal friction of the granular
column material and it may vary depending upon
angularity, surface characteristics and density of
column material. As a broad guide, the φc may range
from 38° to 42° de-pending upon the compactness
achieved during. construction of stone columns. Fig. 5. Effect of stone column foundation on
Yield load = σ v π D2/4 anticipated foundation settlement.
Safe load on column alone
Q1 = σ v (π/4 D2 ) / 2 ………..(2) In this method it is assumed that the column rests on
where 2 is the factor of safety. sufficiently hard ground. In the reduced stress method,
Surcharge Effect. The increase in capacity of the the settlement of the treated ground depends upon two
column due to surcharge may be computed in terms of parameters namely stress concentration factor, n, and
increase in mean radial stress of the soil as follows: the area replacement ratio, as. Factor, 'n' depends on
∆σro = qsafe/3 (1+2K0) ………..(3) the relative stiffness of the stone column and generally
Where ∆σro is the increase in mean radial stress due varies from 2 to 6 with usual values of 3 to 4. The area
to surcharge, and qsafeis the safe bearing ratio, as is determined from the diameter and spacing of
pressure of soil with the factor of safety of 2.5 stone columns provided. Consolidation settlement St of
(See IS 6403) treated ground is determined by the equation given
qsafe = CuNc / 2.5 below:
Increase in yield stress of the column = Kpcol∆σro St = βS
Allowing a factor safety of 2, increase in safe load of Where β = Settlement reduction factor
column, Q2 is given by the following formula: = 1/(1+(n-1)as)
Q2 = (K pcol∆σroA s)/2 ………..(4) n = σs/σc
The surcharge effect is minimum at edges and it should σs = Vertical stress in compacted stone column
be compensated by installing additional columns in the σc = Vertical stress in surrounding soil = Asc/(Asc+As)
peripheral region of the facility. Asc = Area of stone column
Bearing Support Provided by the Intervening Soil. As = Area of soil surrounding the stone column
This component consists of the intrinsic capacity of the
virgin soil to support a vertical load which may be
computed as follows:
 Yuvaraj and Raut 90
VI. CASE STUDIES ON STONE COLUMN
TECHINQUES
Large numbers of major projects in the country have
adopted one of the methods described above. Few
typical case studies are highlighted here. In each case,
field measurements have been made to find the
property of the deposit before and after treatment.
A. Jetty Facilities at ICTT, Vallarpadam, Kochi
Introduction: Dubai Ports (DP World) is developing
an International Container Transhipment Terminal at
Vallarpadam, Kochi, India (refer Figure 6). This all
Fig. 7. Cross-Section showing Stone Columns along
weather port is strategically located on the East-West
Quay & Associated Yard.
trade route on the South West coast of India. It is
expected that the proposed terminal will handle a The sub soil at the site consists of loose to medium
Million TEU’s of transhipment traffic during the first silty sand to a depth of 10m. Below this, alternating
phase by virtue of its strategic position. layers of sand and silty clay are present to a depth of 16
Sub Soil Profile. The subsoil consists of 2 to 3 m thick m. The top 3m were recently reclaimed material. The
silty sand followed by 17 m thick soft clay (tip average fines content in the sand over the depth was in
resistance of 0.3 MPa to 0.6 MPa) and this is followed the range of 15% to 25%. Medium dense sand with
by 3 m thick loose sand. Following this layer, 13 m SPT N> 30 was encountered below 16m.The poor
thick silty clay layer is found (tip resistance of 0.6 to subsoil conditions and the intensity of earthquakes in
1.2 MPa). This layer is followed by very stiff to hard the region resulted in the requirement for soil
clay layers or dense sand layers. improvement prior to construction of the tanks.
Proposed Structures: It is proposed to construct a Treatment: The 34 m high LNG tank imposes a static
600m long quay wall and associated container yard in design load of 230 kPa. In addition a maximum peak
the first phase (refer figure 7). The deck is to be ground acceleration of 0.25 g is to be expected during a
supported on piles with a slope of 1V:3H. possible earthquake event. Ground treatment was
Ground Improvement Scheme: To stabilize the slope therefore required to
below the Jetty and to reduce the settlements in a) Increase the density of the soil and thereby reduce
associated structures, Vibro Stone columns of 1100mm the settlements of the tank under the static load to
diameter are being installed to an average depth of 22.5 within 120 mm.
meters at triangular grid spacing of 2.1m. The b) Reduce the liquefaction potential in the sand layer
installation of Stone Columns was monitored using by strengthening the subsoil and also by providing
automatic data recording systems to ensure adequate effective drainage to prevent excess pore water
depth of treatment and compaction effort. pressure.
Vibro stone columns (Vibro Replacement) were
selected to achieve the above objectives. The coarse
permeable material of the column allows rapid
dissipation of excess pore water pressure. The columns
made up of highly compacted granular material act as a
flexible reinforcement in the soil to increase the overall
shear strength of the treated soil. During the process of
column installation, sandy soil between the columns is
densified.
Design: As per the design, 1.0 m diameter columns on
a square grid spacing of 2.4 m c/c to a depth of 16 m
from the existing ground level were to be installed. The
annular width of treatment was extended beyond the
tank edge by 10 m.
Column Installation. There are three distinct phases of
Fig. 6. Artistic Impression of ICTT, Vallarpadam. installation. The first phase is penetration of the
B. LNG Terminal at Hazira vibrator to the required depth for the first time. In the
second phase, the hole is flushed by withdrawing the
Shell India is constructing two LNG storage tanks at vibrator and repenetrating in to the hole. In the third
the Hazira LNG Terminal. The diameter of the tanks is phase, the vibrator is lifted up by about 1.0 m and then
84 m with a filling level of approx 35 m (Figure 8). repenetrated by about 0.7 m in to the stone mass to
form a highly compacted stone column.
 Yuvaraj and Raut 91
In some situations, poor soil conditions may pose
problem for the integrity of existing structures. In
response to these needs special techniques for the in-
place treatment of soils have been developed and are
practical effectively. Among the several methods the
techniques of stone column is one popular since the
methods require less time to implement and
improvement is quicker.
REFERENCES
[1]. Nayak, V. (1996). Foundations Design Manual,
DhanpatRai Publications (p) New Delhi.
[2]. Gandhi. S.R. (2009). “Ground Improvement Techniques
– an Overview”, Conference on IMPROCE 2009.
[3]. Ilamparuthi. K. (2009). “Ground Improvement
Fig. 8. LNG Tank founded on stone column. Techniques – Stone and Lime columns” Conference on
IMPROCE 2009.
VII. CONCLUSION [4]. Hari Krishna Y (2009). “Vibro Replacement Techniques
for Infrastructure Project”, Conference on IMPROCE 2009.
Numerous instances arise where the soil at many sites
at shallow depths are not having required properties to
support proposed structures.