Parametric Study of a Clayey Specimen Reinforced by a Granular Column

Abstract

This paper studies the effect of certain parameters closely related to the design of column foundations such as the improvement area ratio, especially at low values, e.g., 1 and 4%, and the grain size of the column material (Hostun sand and Hostun gravel) for both strength and rigidity characteristics such as the undrained Young’s modulus and shear strength. Then, the lateral expansion of a cavity in a hollow specimen made up of preconsolidated kaolin clay followed by the installation of the granular material in the cavity is investigated. The purpose of this work is to study the effect of the installation procedure of the column on the behavior of reinforced clayey soil. A comparison between the experimental results and existing analytical ones is presented and discussed.