68th Canadian Geotechnical Conference and 7th Canadian Permafrost Conference

FINITE ELEMENT MODELLING OF STONE COLUMN INSTALLATION: REVIEW OF MODELLING PRACTICES AND CASE STUDY WITH PLAXIS 2D

Session: Problematic Soils and Ground Improvement I / Sols problématiques et amélioration du comportement I

Olivier Hurley, Université de Sherbrooke (Canada)
Mathieu Nuth, Université de Shebrooke (Canada)
Mourad Karray, Université de Sherbrooke (Canada)

This article discusses the different numerical modelling practices for the stone column installation and establishes a comparative review of the numerical techniques and constitutive laws used in the literature. Furthermore, taking advantage of the best practices in numerical modelling of stone column installation, a numerical model was created with PLAXIS 2D in axisymmetric geometry to reproduce the lateral expansion of stone in sand. The host material is modelled with a hardening soil constitutive relation to represent the repetitive loading and unloading of the sand during expansion. The results are presented in terms of lateral to vertical stress ratio and variation in void ratio and are then calibrated with two experimental stone column tests carried out at an intermediate scale in our laboratory.