LOAD- SETTLEMENT BEHAVIOUR OF GRANULAR PILE IN

The paper discusses the results of study conducted on floating granular piles constructed in soft black cotton soil. The soil beds were prepared in a model tank of diameter173 mm and height605 mm. The granular pile of diameter55mm was constructed at the centre of soil bed using crushed stone chips as the pile material. The load test was conducted on the granular pile. The length to diameter ratio (L/d ratio) of the pile was varied, from 1 to 11 with an interval of two, and the effect of pile length on load carrying capacity was studied. Further, to observe the effect of encasement of pile material, it was wrapped by geogrid and the load test was conducted. The test results show that the ultimate load carrying capacity, Qult of the granular pile increases as L/d ratio increases in both the cases i.e. without and with geogrid encasement. The increasing trend of Qult with L/d is observed continuing for the maximum L/d ratio i.e. 11, for the granular pile tested in the study. No well-defined critical length of granular pile is observed in the present investigation of floating granular piles in soft black cotton soil. KEY WORDS: Granular Pile, crushed stone chips, Geogrid, load carrying capacity, critical length. I