EFFECT OF L/B RATIO OF STONE COLUMN ON BEARING CAPACITY AND RELATIVE SETTLEMENT OF SANDY SOIL (AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY)

Stone columns are one method of ground improvement having a proven record of experience. They are ideally suited for improving soft clays and silts and also for loose silty sands. In spite of the wide use of stone columns and their development in construction methods, present design methods are empirical, and only limited information about designing stone columns are available in technical codes. This study is dedicated to observe practically the effect of various parameters of stone column on the bearing capacity of sandy soils by model testing. In this study square footing has been used and model tests were conducted with varying L/B ratio of stone columns. The test results followed that relative settlement was minimum corresponding to L/B ratio (of stone column) of 2.5.