Sand compaction piles consists of driving a hollow steel pipe with the bottom closed with a collapsible plate down to the required depth; filling it with sand, and withdrawing the pipe while air pressure is directed against the sand inside it. The bottom plate opens during withdrawal and the sand backfills the voids created earlier during the driving of the pipe. The in-situ soil is densified while the pipe is being withdrawn, and the sand backfill prevents the soil surrounding the compaction pipe from collapsing as the pipe is withdrawn. The maximum limits on the amount of fines that can be present are 15 percent passing the No. 200 sieve (0.075 mm) and 3 percent passing 0.005 mm. The distance between the piles may have to be planned according to the site conditions.
Stone Columns
The method described for installing sand compaction piles or the vibroflot described earlier can be used to construct stone columns. The size of the stones used for this purpose range from about 6 to 40 mm. Stone columns have particular application in soft inorganic, cohesive soils and are generally inserted on a volume displacement basis.
The diameter of the pipe used either for the construction of sand drains or sand compaction piles can be increased according to the requirements. Stones are placed in the pipe instead of sand, and the technique of constructing stone columns remains the same as that for sand piles.
Stone columns are placed 1 to 3 m apart over the whole area. There is no theoretical procedure for predicting the combined improvement obtained, so it is usual to assume the foundation loads are carried only by the several stone columns with no contribution from the intermediate ground (Bowles, 1996).
Bowles (1996) gives an approximate formula for the allowable bearing capacity of stone columns as
Stone columns should extend through soft clay to firm strata to control settlements. There is no end bearing in Eq. (21.11) because the principal load carrying mechanism is local perimeter shear.
Settlement is usually the principal concern with stone columns since bearing capacity is usually quite adequate (Bowles, 1996). There is no method currently available to compute settlement on a theoretical basis.
Stone columns are not applicable to thick deposits of peat or highly organic silts or clays (Bowles, 1996). Stone columns can be used in loose sand deposits to increase the density.
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