CASE STUDY

GEOGRID REINFORCED GRAULAR MATERIAL

UNDERNEATH BUILDING FOUNDATION RESTING ON
STONE COLUMNS AT KATHMANDU VALLEY

Research Scholar:

Geotech. Eng. Sanjay Kumar Jain

sanjay.jain@lincoln.edu.my
Geotechnical Engineering
Doctor of Philosophy
LINCOLN UNIVERSITY
 INTRODUCTION OF BUILDING

The building constructed by Tamrakar Kuldevata Samrakchhen Samiti has Three

floors with one basement Floor. The upcoming building has the Mat foundation of
162.72 m2. The total Service load applied to the foundation of the building is 99 The
site is located at Urgachandi temple, Pulchowk, Nepal.

Figure 1: Building Mat Plan & Section

 GEOTECHNICAL SOIL INVESTIGATION OF SITE

• Ground Surface filling material

up to 1.5m to 2m depth.
• Hard top soil layer soil strata
thickness ranging from 2m to
3m.
• Soft soil layer brown to gray
sandy silt beneath the Hard
subsoil layer. The thickness of
this layer ranging from 1m to
2m.
• The Dark grey clayey silt of
medium to low plasticity
beneath the sandy silt layer
ranging the soil strata thickness
from 11m to more
Figure 2: A copy
of the logsheet for
representative
borehole
 CONSOLIDATION OF SOIL
INPUT IN GEO5 (Settlement) FOR ESTIMATION
OF CONSOLIDATION OF SOIL
Depth Average Odeometric Consolidation Applied
Range m increase in Modulus ( settlement Service
Vertical Stress Mpa) (mm) Load (Kpa)
KPa
5~6 0~99 10 115 99
6~17 99~42.5 10 115~30 0

17~22 42.5~8.5 10 30~10 0

Figure 3: Initial
Probable Estimation
of Settlement of Mat
Foundation
 CONSOLIDATION OF MAT
BASE PRESSURE OF MAT FOUNDATION FOUNDATION AFTER USING
GEOGRID AND STONE COLUMN IN
FEM MODELLING IN GEO5

Figure 5: Probable Estimation of Settlement of Mat Foundation

after modelling Stone Pile and double layers of Geogrids
Analysis performed for reduced parameters of soils in GEO5-
Figure 4: Base Pressure Diagram FEM
of Mat generated by SAFE2016
Depth Range (m) jeff [°] ceff [kPa] Consolidation (mm)
5~12 19.44 3.24 79.5~30
12~22 19.44 3.24 30~21
 IN-SITU LOAD-SETTLEMENT TEST
After the installation of Stone columns and Double layers of Geogrid layers on the granular backfill, Plate
load test on three different spots were carried out to investigate the settlement of the soil under permissible
limit. The Plotted graph of the Load Settlement Curve at three spots are provided in Figure 6 and 7.The In-
situ test shows the Maximum settlement of 17.85mm on Plate and mat settlement of 30.737mm which is less
than the Maximum permissible limit.

Figure 7: Load-
Settlement Curve

Figure 6: Conducting Plate Load Test

 INSTALLATION OF STONE COLUMN AND GEOGRID LAYERS

Figure 9: Laying geogrid layers on Granular

backfill material
Figure 8: Installation of Stone Column Figure 10: Stone Column Layout
 GEOGRID LAYOUT AND SECTION PLAN

Figure 11: Layout plan of

Geogrid layers

Figure 12: Section Layout of

Geogrid layers
• Geogrid Tensile strength
12KN/m @ 1% strain
• Geogrid Tensile strength
22KN/m @ 2% strain
• Geogrid Tensile strength
48KN/m @ 5% strain
 COST FEASIBILITY OF GROUND MODIFICATION OF PROJECT
CONCLUSION

(1)Characterization of strength and deformation parameters of the supporting soil

strata by an in-situ load settlement curve.

(2)Construction of an engineered pad of reinforced granular fill resting on stone

columns experienced feeble settlement which is well within tolerable limits.
(3)Design is carried out using conventional limit methods which account for the
beneficial effect of geosynthetic reinforcement, and using conventional one
dimensional consolidation theory as shown adequately to describe the site and
result in foundation performance which is satisfactory.
(4)The adoption of a foundation design utilizing the tensile strength of Geogrid
reinforcement with stone column enabled a cost of NRs 1,259,187.00 and RCC
pile cost of NRs 10,620,000.00; resulting cost saving of about NRs
9,360,813.00.
THANK YOU