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Vertical bearing capacity behaviour of single T-shaped soil–cement column in soft ground: laboratory modelling, field test, and calculation

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Abstract

The T-shaped soil–cement column is a variable-diameter column, which has an enlarged column cap at the shallow depth, resulting in the column shape being analogous to the letter “T”. In this study, 1-g laboratory and full-scale field loading tests were employed to investigate the vertical bearing capacity behaviour of a single T-shaped column in soft ground. Pressure cells were set in a T-shaped column in the field to measure the vertical column stress above and below the column cap during the loading test. After the loading test, several columns were excavated to investigate their failure modes. The results indicated that, since the section area of the column cap was remarkably higher than that of the deep-depth column, the stress concentration occurred in the deep-depth column just under the cap, leading to column failure. Based on this failure mode, a simplified method was proposed to estimate the ultimate bearing capacity of a single T-shaped column; the comparison of estimated and measured results indicated the applicability of the proposed method.

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Abbreviations

d :

Diameter of column

d 1 :

Diameter of column cap

d 2 :

Diameter of deep-depth column

e :

Void ratio

f s :

Average skin friction between column and surrounding soil

f s1 :

Average skin friction between column cap and surrounding soil

f s2 :

Average skin friction between deep-depth column and surrounding soil

l :

Length of column

l 1 :

Length of column cap

l 2 :

Length of deep-depth column

L L :

Liquid limit

L p :

Plastic limit

q t :

Ultimate bearing capacity of soil under column tip

q t1 :

Ultimate bearing capacity of soil under cap tip

q t2 :

Ultimate bearing capacity of soil under deep-depth column tip

q u :

Unconfined compressive strength of stabilized soil

Q :

Load

Q c :

Ultimate bearing capacity of column

S :

Settlement

S u :

Undrained shear strength

S u1 :

Average undrained shear strength around column cap

S u2 :

Average undrained shear strength around deep-depth column

w :

Water content

ρ :

Bulk density

η :

Reduction factor for column strength

λ :

Reduction factor for soil bearing capacity under column tip

λ 1 :

Reduction factor for soil bearing capacity under column cap tip

λ 2 :

Reduction factor for soil bearing capacity under deep-depth column tip

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Chen Li for his assistance in laboratory test, and Zhiduo Zhu, Guangyin Du, Nenghe Gong, Bafa Zhang, Zhihua Zhu, and Panfeng Wang for their assistance in field test.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, 639798, Singapore

    Yaolin Yi

  2. Institute of Geotechnical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing, 210096, China

    Songyu Liu

  3. Department of Civil Engineering, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX, 76019, USA

    Anand J. Puppala

  4. School of Civil Engineering, Anhui Jianzhu University, Hefei, 230601, China

    Peisheng Xi

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  1. Yaolin Yi
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  4. Peisheng Xi
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Correspondence to Yaolin Yi.

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Yi, Y., Liu, S., Puppala, A.J. et al. Vertical bearing capacity behaviour of single T-shaped soil–cement column in soft ground: laboratory modelling, field test, and calculation. Acta Geotech. 12, 1077–1088 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11440-017-0555-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11440-017-0555-z

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