Behavior of Encased Stone Column-Reinforced Soil Under Eccentrically Inclined Loads

In this study, a finite element analysis was carried out to investigate the response of raft foundations resting on soft soil reinforced with geosynthetic encased stone columns. The foundation soil and the stone columns were modeled using the Mohr–Coulomb model. Parametric studies were carried out to investigate the load transfer mechanism in raft foundations, and the stress distribution, lateral deformations of stone columns, and settlement of foundations were examined. Further, the failure mechanism of geosynthetic encased stone columns was studied for various parameters, such as eccentricity ratio, load inclination, and area replacement ratio and was compared with the conventional stone columns. The eccentricity ratio was varied between 0 and 0.15, the area replacement ratio was varied between 0.15 and 0.3, and the inclination angle was varied between 0° and 20°. Based on the analysis, it was observed that the higher area ratio with encasing performs better in terms of settlement, stress concentration ratio, and lateral displacement.