Effect of Spacing between Stone Columns on the Behavior of Soft Soil

Soil improvement by stone columns is extensively used, especially for the soft ones. This is because of their efficiency and no environmental impact. Several factors affect its efficiency in improving the mechanical properties of the soil, and the most important of these factors are the spacing, length, and diameter of the stone columns. In this study, the finite element method was used to study the impact of the spacing between the stone columns on the amount of settlement and the bearing capacity of the soil. The study comprises three different spaces (s) that were taken in relation to the columns’ diameter (d), which are (s/d= 3, 4, and 5). In addition, three types of the sectional shape of column involved circular, rectangular, and square sections with different lengths of (L/d=2, 4, 6, 8, and 10). The results showed that the spacing between the stone columns is effective when the vertical load is greater than 30 kN/m2, and below this, there is no effect of the spacing. In general, the settlement decreases, and the bearing capacity increases with the decrease in the spacing between the stone columns. The spacing becomes a more pronounced effect with the longer length of the stone columns. All sections of the stone columns with a short length of (L/d=2) showed the same settlement of 271 mm at a distance (s/d=5), which decreases by 7.4, 6.6, and 8.9% at a distance (s/d=3) for the circular, rectangular and square sections respectively. In the case of long columns (L/d=10), the settlement at (s/d=3) improves by about 27.5% which drop to about 18% at (s/d=5). A slight improvement in the soil's bearing capacity is associated with decreases in the spacing between the stone columns. The improvements in the bearing of soil treated with short columns (L/d=2) are 6.0, 6.5, and 4.7% for circular, rectangular, and square sections, respectively, when changing the distance from (s/d=5) to (s/d=3). Whereas they become greater when increasing the columns’ length to (L/d=10) to be 7.9, 9.2, and 6.4%