ABSTRACT
Conventional stone columns are generally not suited to soils with undrained shear strengths less than about 15 kPa, as the lateral confinement provided by soil surrounding the column may be insufficient to prevent excessive radial column expansion. Recently, the use of columns has been extended to extremely soft soils using geotextile encasement to provide additional lateral support. Furthermore, research is currently being undertaken at Monash University to investigate using geogrid as an encasement material. When compared to geotextile, it is expected that geogrid encasement will provide a stiffer column, resulting in less settlement and higher capacity.
