الفهرس 
The Effective Parameters in DesignOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
This research is to investigate the effect of encasement of the stone columns on improving the behaviour of soft clay soil to support more loading and decrease settlement. The encased stone columns are one of the greatest effective techniques that are increasingly used for improving the soft clay soil by increasing the overall resistance from the soil. In this research, a Numerical finite element model (FEM) has been performed using the PLAXIS 3D program on a floating single stone column with two diameters (D=0.40 m and 0.60 m) for both cases of ordinary stone column (OSC) and encased stone column (ESC). In this study, different parameters are considered such as the encasement length, and the strength of the geosynthetic material. from this study, bulging was observed to be initiated at a deeper length in the case of the (ESC) due to encasement. The bearing capacity of the (OSC) with D=0.40m has increased by about 60% compared to the case of the clay soil only. While for the case of using (ESC), it is observed to be increased by 120% at Lenc/D equals 2. Moreover, for the case of D=0.6m, the bearing capacity of the (OSC) was observed to be increased by 33% compared to the case of clay only. While for the case of the (ESC), it was observed to be improved by 93%. Results reveal that there is a significant increase in the bearing capacity of the stone columns with the increase of the length of encasement up to the fully encased column for both diameters D=0.40 m and D=0.60 m. Also, a smaller diameter of 0.40 m encased stone column is superior to that of 0.60 m diameter. The reason for this is the additional confining stress in a smaller diameter.