See

discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321304659

A highlight on stability of road embankments

on soil reinforced by floating stone columns: a
Tunisian case study

Conference Paper · November 2017

CITATIONS READS

0 23

2 authors, including:

Mounir Bouassida
University of Tunis El Manar
239 PUBLICATIONS 831 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

Behavior of foundations on soil reinforced by columns View project

calcul fiabiliste et stochastique des ouvrages View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Mounir Bouassida on 03 December 2017.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

7th Geotechnical Symposium
22-23-24 November 2017, Istanbul

A HIGHLIGHT ON STABILITY OF ROAD EMBANKMENTS

ON SOIL REINFORCED BY FLOATING STONE COLUMNS:
A TUNISIAN CASE STUDY

Mounir Bouassida *1 JM Debats 2

ABSTRACT
Nowadays, the use of floating stone columns to reinforce soft/compressible soils is
becoming more common. In fact the optimization of the length of the floating columns will
make this improvement technique much more cost-effective. Adopting such reinforcement
scheme relies on the verification of the residual settlements within the unreinforced soil
layers which should remain within an admissible range. The financial harbor at Raoued
(Ariana governorate) located north of Tunis City is a large project where the first step in
progress is to build several kilometers of roads over 5000 Acres. The geotechnical profile
of this area neighboring the Mediterranean Sea is essentially composed of soft soil layers
up to 15 m depth overlying compressible clays horizons extending to30 m depth. Two
options of soil improvement techniques were studied: preloading embankments associated
to geodrains of 30 m length and reinforcement by floating stone columns of 14-17 m
length. Due to the significant savings in time provided by the stone column reinforcement
compared to the use of geodrains with preloading the suggested paper details the design of
the stone columns, taking into account the requirement of an allowable residual differential
settlement of 2 cm within the unreinforced compressible clays having good homogeneity
and also an OCR of 1.3 as predicted from CPTu tests. The design of floating column
reinforced foundation was carried out by using the methodology suggested by Bouassida
and Carter (2014) and inherent verifications detailed by Bouassida and Hazzar (2015).

*1 Université de Tunis El Manar, Ecole Nationale d'ingénieurs de Tunis. Ingénierie Géotechnique, LR14ES03, BP 37 Le Belvédère 1002
Tunis, Tunisia. mounir.bouassida@enit.rnu.tn

2
Eguilles, Aix en Provence, France.
 Mounir Bouassida, JM Debats

1. INTRODUCTION
Presently a wide spectrum of improvement techniques is affordable for the treatment of
weak and highly compressible soils like soft clays. Prefabricated vertical drains, vacuum
consolidation, stone columns, sand compaction piles and deep soil mixing are among the
most widely used techniques to enhance bearing capacity, to mitigate settlements and
accelerate the consolidation of soft soils. Choosing the suitable solution among these
techniques depends on several factors like the ground conditions to ensure suitable
installation. This is often checked by performing ”trial zones” which also permit to
quantify the expected benefits. In this context the Project of Financial Harbor at Raoued
(PFHR) at Ariana (Tunisia) is addressed for the construction, in a first step, of roads on
embankments with variable height up to 4m. The PFHR is located in a coastal area close to
the Mediterranean sea. In such area recent sedimentary deposits, e.g. compressible soft
soils, are often encountered.
This paper, first, briefly introduces the consistency of the geotechnical surveys performed
at site and the synthesis of the geotechnical data to be considered for the design. Especially
the overconsolidation of the compressible clay layers encountered is investigated from
oedometer and CPTu test results. The main section details the design of floating stone
column reinforcement as a foundation of road embankments. This alternative raises the
problem of long term settlement in the unreinforced clay layers: are those settlements
admissible in magnitude and in time as a function of embankment height? The design of
stone columns reinforcement is carried out by duly taking all those considerations into
account.

2. THE PROGRAMME OF GEOTECHNICAL SURVEYS

As reported in [1] and [2], two main geotechnical surveys were carried out in 2014 and in
2017 for the construction of road embankments the geotechnical surveys comprised:

- Eighteen pressuremeter profiles performed to various depths (81 to 96 m);

- Three boreholes performed up to 40 m depth below ground surface. From these boreholes
sixteen intact soil specimens were extracted to be used for identification and mechanical
laboratory tests. Laboratory tests included grain size distribution, Atterberg limits, unit
weight and water content determination and essentially oedometer tests.

- Seven SPT tests were performed.

- Five profiles of CPTu tests were performed to refusal depths varying from 19 to 35 m
depth (first survey).

- Eight profiles of CPTu tests were performed to refusal depths varying from 24.9 to 30.3m
depth (second survey).

Detailed experimental results of in-situ and laboratory tests are given in the reports [1]
and [2].
 A Highlight On Stability Of Road Embankments On Soil Reinforced By Floating Stone Columns: A
Tunisian Case Study

3.SYNTHESIS OF GEOTECHNICAL INVESTIGATIONS

From the existing geotechnical reports two soil profiles were considered for the design as
summarized in Table 1.

Table 1. Typical geotechnical profiles

Profile n° 1 (unfavored data between I-2 & III- Profil n° 2 (unfavored data between I-1, III-1 &
4) III-2)

Thickness Em (MPa) Pl* (MPa) Thickness Em (MPa) Pl* (MPa)

Horizons Horizons
(m) (m)
I 6 0.9 0.21 II 4 3.5 0.68
II 6 3.5 0.68 III 38 3 0.45
III 18 3 0.45 IV 15 5.3 0.9
IV 20 5.3 0.9 V 21 13 1.55
V 34 13 1.55 - - - -

Along the main direction 1-A of road embankments the soil profiles given in Table 1
indicates homogeneous formations interrupted by some indurated layers or lenses. Herein,
focus is given on clayey layers of horizon III, in particular the evaluation of their over-
consolidation ratio (OCR), compression index and estimates of vertical and horizontal
coefficient of consolidation. Those parameters significantly affect the estimation of
primary consolidation (or long term) settlement and also its evolution in time.

3.1. Evaluation of OCR of clayey layers (horizon III)

From results obtained from oedometer tests carried out on several intact soil specimens it
was recommended by [3] to consider that clay layers of horizon III are, at least, normally
consolidated. Such recommendation was checked by analyzing the profiles of CPTu tests
in layer III which look quite homogenous, but sometimes are interrupted by thin hard
layers or lenses. The recorded results from CPTu tests are helpful to learn much better
about the OCR of layers in horizon III. First, the advantage of CPTu test is to record in a
direct manner the the tip resistance without any disturbance of the in-situ soil. Whilst from
oedometer tests the results can be seriously affected by the disturbance of specimens
during their extraction from sampling tubes, transportation and preparation steps before
performing the oedometer test itself. Second, since the seventies in Sweden, several
correlations were proposed for estimating the preconsolidation pressure 'p of clays from
the tip resistance qc or from the corrected tip resistance qt recorded during the cone
penetration test. Due to this the correlation expressed by Eq (1) and shown in Fig. 1 was
agreed because its correlation coefficient is quite good as R2 = 0.884 (Bowles, 1982):

'p = 0.5439 qt0.8635 (1)

 Mounir Bouassida, JM Debats

Figure 1. Correlated pre-consolidation pressure vs corrected tip resistance from CPT-u

tests (Bowles, 1982)

The evaluation of OCR

From CPTu test results given in [1] the profiles PZ EX2 et PZ EX6 were compiled from
which the tip resistance qc was considered as a safe alternative since qc is lower than qt and
therefore, the estimated pre-consolidation pressure from correlation (1) will not be
overestimated. Detailed discussion on the method of determination of the OCR of clay
layers in horizon III is available in [4]. It was agreed that the minimum and safe OCR
value is 1.3 for clay layers encountered between 17 and 28 m depth. This over-
consolidation was confirmed from identification laboratory tests, in particular by a
consistency index of 0.75, and by the geological era (10,000 years) of the Raoued area that
served as the basin of Meliane river.
Overconsolidation of clay layers from -14 m to -28 m depth is essentially attributed to the
overlaid formation composed by silt sand horizons having low consistency. For such
condition the following explanation might prevail.
Step 1: the deposit of sub clay layers on the prior river bed (e.g. from -30 to -13 m depth
for instance) the sea level was zero. At this stage the effective stress at elevation -21 equals
(21-13)m x 17 kN/m3 -21x10 kN/m3 = -74 kPa (under-consolidated stage, obviously).
Step 2: Deposit of alternated sand/clay formation over the sub-clay layer, e.g. from -13 up
to zero level, the sea level is always located at zero level. At this stage the effective stress
at elevation -21 becomes: (21-0)x 17 kN/m3 - 21x10 kN/m3 = 147 kPa. Hence, the sub clay
layers, after consolidation over some thousands years, might be over-consolidated
approximately in a ratio as (147+74)/147 = 1.5 which would confirm the magnitude of
expected over consolidation.
For those arguments, from CPTu data available in reports [1] and [2], an over-
consolidation ratio OCR = 1.3 can be adopted. This value is rather conservative for clay
layers located from 14 m to 28 m depth in view of estimating their long term settlement.
A Highlight On Stability Of Road Embankments On Soil Reinforced By Floating Stone Columns: A
Tunisian Case Study

3.2. Evaluation of vertical and horizontal coefficients of consolidation and

compression index of clay layers

Figure 2. Withman and Lambe's (1969) chart

4. DESİGN OF EMBANKMENT FOUNDATION ON REINFORCED

SOİL BY FLOATİNG COLUMNS
The adopted methodology, as detailed in Bouassida & Carter (2014) and Bouassida (2016),
relies on two verifications: the bearing capacity and settlement. Implementation of this
methodology in Columns 1.01 software (Bouassida & Hazzar, 2012) enables the prediction
of optimized area ratio on the basis of given short term settlement (end of construction).
This settlement is estimated using the linear elastic behavior by adopting Young modulus
of column material equals 10 times that of the initial soil after the French recommendation
revised in (2011). The first design step aims at the estimation of Young modulus of all
crossed layers from the surface up to 30 m depth where the effect of surcharge load due to
embankments vanishes and, in addition, a stratum level appears (horizon IV in Table 1).

4.1 Estimation of modulus of deformation

From the performed CPTu and SPT tests executed in clay layers and sand layers,
respectively the Young modulus is deduced for each layer from the following correlations
suggested by Bowles (1996) and Das (2014):

clayey formation: E = (3 to6)* qc (2)

Silt-saturated fine sand E = 300 * (N+6) (3)

Or:
 Mounir Bouassida, JM Debats

E = 320 * (N+15) (4)

N denotes the SPT number measured from the SPT test.

From correlations given by Eqs (2), (3) and (4) and considering safe estimations the
adopted modulus of deformation are the following:

For clays: E = 4 * Qc (5)

For sands the correlation given by Eq (3) was agreed. Hence, the adopted modulus of
deformations are summarized in Tables 2 and 3.

Table 2. Modulus of deformation of sand layers

Depth (m) SPT E (kPa)
1 to 5 N=8 4200
5 to 12 N = 15 6300

Table 3. Modulus of deformation of clay layers.

Depth (m) CPT E (MPa)
12 to 23 qc = 1.25 MPa 5
23 to 27 qc = 1.6 MPa 6.4
27 to 30 qc = 2.5 MPa 10
≥ 30 m qc = 10 MPa 40

4.2 Road embankments: geometry and associated networks

Those embankments have a variable height from 0.5 to 4 m and different cross section with
a slope 2 on vertical over 3 on horizontal directions. Over their length profile these
embankments have progressive slopes each 80 m to 100 m distance. At 0.5 m depth below
the basis of those embankments gravity hydraulic networks will be installed with very low
slope of 0.2 percent. For such networks the requirement is to not exceed a long term
residual settlement of 2 cm. The biggest cross section of embankment has by 4 m height,
62 m of width base and 52 m at width crest with 80 kPa uniformly distributed load. Due
the compressibility of clay layers in horizon III and transmitted excess of vertical stress
within those layers long term settlements are expected so that functioning of the hydraulic
gravity networks will be affected.

4.3 Why was the reinforcement by stone columns contemplated?

It is noted that the verification of bearing capacity for the embankments' foundation is
warranted so that the 80 kPa surcharge load is admissible. In fact, based on the safe
determination of undrained cohesion equal to 35 kPa of superficial layer there is no risk in
regard to the admissible bearing capacity. In turn, the settlement verification requires a
comprehensive analysis as explained above.
As a first option, it was judged that the long term settlement of embankments can be
accelerated, prior to their construction by a preloading associated to vertical drains of
length extending up to 28 to 30 m. Although this option offers a safe solution to avoid any
surprise for the functioning of hydraulic networks it will take a long time for the
A Highlight On Stability Of Road Embankments On Soil Reinforced By Floating Stone Columns: A
Tunisian Case Study

preloading over an approximated area of 5000 Acres. Also the installation of prefabricated
vertical drains (PVD), however already experienced in Tunisia for infrastructure projects,
but with length less than 18 m, presents the risk on inclined installation of the PVD from
which the full depth of treatment will not be covered also needs to be checked.
Therefore, the second suitable solution consists in both reducing and accelerating the
consolidation settlement essentially over the first 14 m depth of sand silt formation. Such
solution obviously offers the benefit in saving the preloading time. This alternative is
feasible when floating stone column reinforcement is targeted. Whilst the length of the
stone columns should be optimized taking into account the over-consolidation of clay
layers (horizon III) and the decrease of induced excess vertical stress due to the surcharge
embankment.
For the purpose of suitable and easy execution the optimized length of stone columns was
decided as 14m. Beyond 14 m depth the treatment by stone columns in the clay layer will
be time consuming but it remains effective.

4.4 Design using floating stone columns -Settlement reduction - Long term settlement.

4.4.1 Short term settlement

Consider a total short term settlement of 16 cm which is quite admissible for 4 m

embankment height, on the basis of soil layers and column material properties the
optimized improvement area ratio as determined by the software Columns 1.01 is found by
16%. The settlement of reinforced soil layers over 14m depth equals 8.1 cm. Since stone
columns behave like vertical drains the settlement of reinforced soil will occur at the end
of embankment construction. It is proposed that stone columns of diameter 1m are installed
in triangular pattern with an axis to axis spacing equals 2.46 m. Assuming that the
consolidation of reinforced soil only occurs horizontally the use of Barron's chart leads that
90% of consolidation is expected in three months approximately. This duration coincides
almost with one stage construction of 4m embankment height. The primary consolidation
settlement of unreinforced layers over 14 m in such duration can be neglected so that the
residual settlement of unreinforced clay layers corresponds to the residual settlement to be
induced under the road embankments.

4.4.2 Estimation of long term settlement

The oedometer and CPTu methods are both considered for estimating the consolidation
settlement of unreinforced clay layers. Comparison between the predictions of these
methods is then discussed.
Estimation of long term settlement using the oedometer method
The prediction of long term settlement over 14 m thickness of clay layers by the oedometer
method is 18.5 cm for a surcharge load of 80 kPa. This prediction is obtained by an Excel
sheet calculation by subdividing the 14 m in sub-layers of thickness 3 m. Excess of vertical
stress due to embankment load, vertical effective stress and preconsolidation stresses were
calculated at mid thickness of each sub layer. The averaged long term settlement per meter
of embankment height and per meter of compressible layer is sketched in Figure 3.
 Mounir Bouassida, JM Debats

Figure 3. Variation of normalized long term settlement per meter of compressible clay
later and per meter of embankment height.

Estimation of long term settlement using the CPTu test results.

The long term settlement can be estimated from the correlation between oedometer
modulus Eoedand the tip resistance qc:

Eoed = 5 qc (6)

Considering each CPT profile (in total there are eight profiles), by adopting the correlation
in Eq (5) for each 50 mm thickness the oedometer modulus is calculated and the long term
settlement is predicted. The averaged settlement per one kPa and per meter of clay layer is
0.185 mm/kPa/m as detailed from the Excel sheet calculation given in Table 4.

Table 4. Estimation of long term settlement from CPTu data

A Highlight On Stability Of Road Embankments On Soil Reinforced By Floating Stone Columns: A
Tunisian Case Study

It is noted that the estimation of long term settlement from the CPTu data exceeds by 10%
that estimated from the oedometer method. Hence, this confirms that adopted OCR = 1.3
for the compressible clay layers is secured for the prediction of long term settlement. The
duration of long term settlement, calculated for consolidation ratio = 50%, by assuming
one drainage path (from the tip of stone columns) of the unreinforced layers over 14 m
thickness, is about 16 years. Therefore, the variation of primary consolidation settlement
evolves slowly.

Verification of residual differential settlement

Predicted long term settlement shown in Figure 3 corresponds to uniform settlement

induced by uniform surcharge load which is not the case of embankment having variable
height. Along a given section of road embankment of typical length equals 100 m the
height is variable and so is the induced settlement. Figure 4 clearly shows quite variable
absolute settlement along the main section 1-A of the PFHR of total length approximating
1,180 m. In this figure the variation of differential settlement is also shown. Thus, it is the
differential settlement: s = si -si-1 between two successive points "i-1" and "i" almost
distanced by 100 m within a section of road embankment, rather that the absolute
settlement, that will affect the functioning of hydraulic networks which will be installed
with a quite low slope of 0.2 %. Such analysis can be highlighted from Figure 5 that shows
the evolution of residual differential settlement along the first sub-section (0 to 180 m) of
main axis 1-A compared to the allowable residual long settlement of "+" or "-" 2 cm.

Figure 4. Variation of absolute and differential long term settlement along axis 1-A
 Mounir Bouassida, JM Debats

Figure 5. Variation of differential long term settlement along the first section of axis 1-A

From Figure 5 the most unfavorable situation corresponds to the sub-section between
points 0 and 1 where the differential settlement equals 8.1 cm. The admissible differential
settlement equals 2 cm that corresponds to a vertical degree of consolidation calculated
from one-dimensional Terzaghi's theory:

U(Tv) = 2 cm/6.1 cm = 0.32786.

From the equation of time factor: Tv = cv*t/H2 one can determine from which time the
differential settlement will exceed the admissible limit of 2 cm, it is: t = 14 years. It is the
soonest time from which the residual differential settlement might affect the functioning of
hydraulic gravity networks.
From Figure 5 three critical sub-sections (e.g. where the residual differential settlement
exceeds its admissible limit) are expected. For those sub-sections it recommended to
proceed for a reinforcement with 17 m length of floating stone columns for reducing and
accelerating the consolidation settlement of clay layers (horizon III). Nevertheless, the
more likely, expected differential settlements would not affect the functioning of hydraulic
gravity network because those settlements will only take place with a long passage of time.
It is noted that all predictions on the basis of suggested design should be validated by
scheduling a loading test with recorded load-settlement curves.
A Highlight On Stability Of Road Embankments On Soil Reinforced By Floating Stone Columns: A
Tunisian Case Study

4. CONCLUSIONS
This paper addressed the design of floating stone column foundations for embankments
road scheduled for the ongoing Tunisian project "Project Financial Harbour of Raoued".
The geotechnical investigations conducted for this project have been synthesized with
special focus on the over consolidation of clay layers overlaid by silt sand formation both
having 14 m thickness. In this regard the use of CPTu data revealed more suitable than
data recorded during oedometer tests. Two ground improvement options were decided for
this project: first option was a preloading associated with prefabricated vertical drains, and
the second suggested to install floating stone columns of 14 m length crossing the
homogenized silt sand formation.
The study of behavior of road embankments having variable height is tributary of the
residual differential settlement rather than the absolute consolidation settlement. From this
analysis it is proposed to focus on the differential consolidation settlement to occur within
the unreinforced clay layers starting from 14 m depth, below the ground surface, and
should affect the functioning of the gravity hydraulic networks.
The suggested design consists in stone columns of 14 m length crossing the sand silt
formation installed by the vibrocompation method to improve the stiffness of treated silt
sand layers. In turn, over limited sub-sections of the road embankments it was
recommended to install stone columns of 17 m in length to fulfill the required residual
settlement of 2 cm.
For the road embankments foundation of the PFHR a technical-economical comparison
will be carried out to state about the suitable improvement technique to be executed.

REFERENCES
[1] Hydrosol-Fondations. Campagne de reconnaissance géotechnique. Phase d'exécution
du port financier à Raoued.
[2] [1] Hydrosol-Fondations. Tunis Bay Project (Raoued-Tunis). Geotechnicalreport.
[3]Terrasol-Tunisie. Rapport géotechnique de Raoued Port financier.
[4]Africa Engineering (2017). Variante de renforcement par colonnes ballastées:
Dimensionnement et modalités d'exécution, Mai.
[5] Bouassida M., Hazzar L. (2008). Comparison between Stone Columns and Vertical
Geodrains with Preloading Embankment Techniques. Proc. 6th Int. Conf. On
Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering. Arlington VA (USA), 11-18
August, Paper No. 7.18a.
[6] Bouassida, M. and Carter, J. P. (2014). “Optimization of Design of Column-reinforced
Foundations”. Int. J. Geomech., Volume 14, Issue 6 (December 2014),
04014031-1-10.

[7] Bouassida M. (2016); Design of Column-Reinforced Foundations. J. Ross Publishing

(FL, USA), August. 224 pages. ISBN: 978-1-60427-072-3.

[8]. M. Bouassida, and L. Hazzar (2012). Novel tool for optimised design of reinforced
soils by columns. Ground Improvement: Proc. ICE, London 165, Issue 1, pp 31
–40.
[9]. Document français (2011). Recommandations sur la conception, le calcul, l’exécution
et le contrôle des colonnes ballastées sous bâtiments et sous ouvrage sensible
 Mounir Bouassida, JM Debats

au tassement (in French). Comité Français de Mécanique des Sols, Version

n°2, March 16, 32 pages.
[10]. Bowles, J. E. (1996). Foundation Analysis and Design, 5th. edition, McGraw-Hill,
New York.
[11]. Das M.B. (2014). Principles of Foundation Engineering. Cengage Learning. USA
[12]. Lambe T.W. and Withman R.V. (1969). Soil mechanics. M.I.T.

View publication stats