Behavior of Compacted Lime-soil Columns

This study presents the results of large scale laboratory model tests to investigate the behavior of Compacted Lime –Soil (CL-S) rigid stone columns in soft soils. The unit cell idealization is used forconstruction of composite specimens to evaluate the influence of different parameters such as thediameter of the column (D), the slenderness ratio (L/D) and the area ratio (Ar). Experiments were carried out on both end bearing and floating columns. Load was applied over entire area of the specimens to find the stiffness of the improved ground. Based on the results, it was concluded that CLScolumns increase the load carrying capacity and reduce the settlement of soft soils. In addition, the results show the influence of model size on the stiffness of the specimens which means that the load carrying capacity decreases by increasing the size of the model. However, for specimens containingcolumns with diameters greater than 100 mm, the variation of stiffness becomes negligible and hence the results can be used to extrapolate and predict the full size behavior of these columns. The experimental results were compared with results reported in the literature for conventional stone columns.