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The equivalent shear strength properties of the composite soil reinforced by stone columns: an FDM-DEM-coupled numerical evaluation

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Abstract

The equivalent shear strength of the composite soil reinforced by stone columns was studied using an FDM-DEM numerical method. In the numerical model of composite soil, the stone column was represented by discrete rigid blocks based on the Voronoi tessellation, and the continuum Mohr–Coulomb material represented the surrounding clay. The numerical simulation results show that the embedded stone column mainly controls the development of a macroscopic shear slip surface in the composite soil. The interaction between the stone column and the soil portion inside composite soil has been well captured numerically. The numerical simulation results can be used to better understand the failure process of the composite soil reinforced by stone columns. The differences in the equivalent shear strength properties between those calculated using numerical simulation and those predicted by the commonly used analytical formulas have been discussed in this article.

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Data availability

All data generated or analysed during this study are included in this published article.

Code availability

The code used or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Funding

This research was supported by the Special Funding Support for the Construction of Innovative Provinces in Hunan Province of China (ID 2019GK1010), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51508181), the Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province of China (ID 2019JJ50056), and the Science and Technology Infrastructure Program of Guizhou Province (2020-4Y047, 2018-133-042).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Civil Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha, China

    Xin Tan, Longjian Feng & Zhengbo Hu

  2. Key Laboratory of Building Safety and Energy Efficiency of the Ministry of Education, Hunan University, Changsha, China

    Xin Tan

  3. National Centre of Excellence in Geology, University of Peshawar, Peshawar, Pakistan

    Syed Muntazir Abbas

Authors
  1. Xin Tan
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  2. Longjian Feng
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  3. Zhengbo Hu
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  4. Syed Muntazir Abbas
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Contributions

XT: conceptualization; writing—original draft preparation; LF: numerical analysis; ZH: data curation; SMA: writing—reviewing and editing.

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Correspondence to Xin Tan.

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Tan, X., Feng, L., Hu, Z. et al. The equivalent shear strength properties of the composite soil reinforced by stone columns: an FDM-DEM-coupled numerical evaluation . Environ Earth Sci 80, 125 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-021-09412-0

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