Verification of a plane strain and three-dimensional model for the analysis of stone columns group

Abstract

The effect of using stone columns on settlement rate of soft clay soils is considered a subject with little studies. This paper presents implementation of 2D and 3D numerical model to predict settlement rate of soft clay soils. The numerical models were compared with observations of large-scale field project. The project consisted of implementation of 0.90m end-bearing stone columns with spacing of 2.90m and average the field behavior especially for settlement values, settlement rates, and pore water pressure. The 2D model is considered conservative at the early stage of loading and accurately predict the field observations for long-term behavior. The final results show that 3D model is more realistic than the 2D model, but it requires more time and computational efforts.