Soil and foundation stability improvement by stone column: A case study in Adapazari city, Turkey

Abstract

Adapazari city is located on a very deep alluvial deposit and in a seismically active region. Due to the catastrophic earthquakes, the region had painful experiences in the past. The latest severe earthquake, called Marmara earthquake, hit the region on August 17, 1999. It resulted in nearly 4.000 deaths, over 5,000 injuries and totally destroyed more than 29,000 buildings. The region has liquefaction potential due to its geological set up. Most of the structures built on the liquefiable soil severely settled or tilted besides the structural damages. To re-accommodate these structures, it is necessary to strengthen them besides improve their ground conditions. Then, it may be possible to avoid probable damages caused by liquefaction and use them again safely. In this study, application of modified dry bottom feed stone column as one of the dominant ground improvement methods in the region was introduced. Also, a numerical analysis is carried out to check its performance with respect to displacements. According to numerical results, significant improvements were obtained in terms of displacements.