Consolidation of composite foundation improved by geosynthetic-encased stone columns

A theoretical solution is developed for calculating the consolidation of foundations reinforced by geosynthetic-encased stone columns (GESC). The elastic volumetric strains of the column and the surrounding soil previously obtained by the authors are adopted, and both the horizontal and vertical flows within the column and the soil are considered in this solution. The solution for calculating the consolidation of the type-column composite foundation without geosynthetics is obtained by degenerating the present solution to this special case and compared it with existing solutions. The comparisons show that, as underestimating the volumetric strains of the column and the surrounding soil, the average degree of consolidation calculated by the previous studies are greater than the present model and the differences are noted. Finally, the influence of geosynthetics on the consolidation of composite foundation is analyzed. The results show that the geosynthetics encasement has negligible effect on accelerating the consolidation of the composite foundation in the elastic phase.