Performance Assessment of Treated Jute Fiber Encased Stone Columns in Improving Soft Clay Beds

Stabilization of soils becomes an important concern in preparing the soils before construction of structures. Especially, in soft clayey soils or soils near to coastal region, i.e., soft marine clays, the ground improvement becomes essential so that there is an improvement in bearing capacity and reduction of settlement due to the applied loads. This paper presents the results of experimental tests done on laboratory scale model of a sample of compressible soil specimens reinforced with conventional stone columns, treated jute fiber encased stone columns and comparison is done with these with reference to soils without any stone columns. The core objective is to evaluate the bearing capacity and settlement behavior of the soils which are reinforced with conventional stone columns, treated jute fiber encased stone columns. The experimental results have been compared with existing statistics proposed in the literature. The specimen consists of soft clayey beds that are reinforced with stone columns prepared with HBG (hard broken granite) metal with sizes between 2 to 6.3 mm. The results show that the increment in bearing capacity and decrement in settlement of soil is found out when the soil is reinforced with the stone column encased with treated jute fabric.