Computers and Geotechnics 38 (2011) 566–576

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Computers and Geotechnics

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Numerical analysis of an embankment built on soft soil reinforced with deep

mixing columns: Parametric study
Paulo J. Venda Oliveira a,⇑, João L.P. Pinheiro b,1, António A.S. Correia a,⇑,2
a
Department of Civil Engineering, University of Coimbra, Rua Luís Reis Santos, 3030-788 Coimbra, Portugal
b
Martifer, Zona Industrial, Apartado 17, 3684-001 Oliveira de Frades, Portugal

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The behaviour of an embankment built on normally consolidated soft soil reinforced with deep mixing
Received 4 February 2011 columns is studied using a coupled soil–water formulation. The numerical predictions are analysed in
Received in revised form 4 March 2011 terms of settlements, increments in vertical effective stresses and excess pore pressures. Firstly, the effec-
Accepted 17 March 2011
tiveness of the use of deep mixing columns is studied. Afterwards, a parametric analysis is performed to
study the influence on the soil-columns system of the replacement ratio (columns’ spacing), the deforma-
bility of the embankment and columns, and the coefficient of vertical permeability of the columns.
Keywords:
Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Deep mixing columns
Parametric study
Numerical analysis
Embankment on soft clay
Modified Cam Clay model
Soil improvement

1. Introduction
The economic development of modern societies, in conjunction
with the progressive concentration of the world’s population and
of industrial complexes on the periphery of major cities, has led
to increased occupation of soils of weak quality, from a geotechni-
cal engineering point of view. Included in this concept are soft
soils, generally characterized by low shear strength and high com-
pressibility. Nowadays, there are some techniques that can solve
and/or attenuate some of the geotechnical weaknesses, in order
to reduce or accelerate the settlements and to increase the strength
of the soil foundation. Some of the most common soil improve-
ment methods are the use of pre-fabricated vertical drains, pre-
loading, stage construction, geosynthetics, light-weight fill, soil
foundation reinforced with vertical rigid inclusions (concrete piles,
stone columns or deep mixing columns), or conjugation of some of
the afore-mentioned techniques.
The deep mixing technique consists of the mechanical mixing of
the in situ natural soil with either slurries (wet method) or powder
(dry method) binders to form columns or panels of improved soil
in the ground. The main advantages of the dry method include
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +351 239797271; fax: +351 239797267.
E-mail addresses: pjvo@dec.uc.pt (P.J. Venda Oliveira), jpolido@hotmail.com
(J.L.P. Pinheiro), aalberto@dec.uc.pt (A.A.S. Correia).
1
Tel.: +351 963917480.
2
Tel.: +351 239797277; fax: +351 239797267.
lower water content of improved soil, lower binder quantity and
generally higher strength, while in the wet method it is easier to
produce homogeneous columns. The wet method may not be
applicable when water content is high since the high water/binder
ratio may result in lower strength [1]. Independently of the binder
condition (dry or wet) the columns usually have a diameter of
0.5–0.8 m and a maximum depth of 40 m, while the panels usually
have a length of 2.4–2.8 m, a width of 0.5–1.2 m and can reach a
maximum depth of 60 m. The stabilizing binders used in practice
are, in the majority of cases, Portland cement and quick lime
[2,3]. However, additives such as granulated blast furnace slag,
fly ash, gypsum and silica dust, among others, may be used spe-
cially for the improvement of clay soils with high water content
or organic soils [1,2].
In recent years the reinforcement of soil foundations with deep
mixing columns (DMC) has expanded a great deal around the
world, due to the following reasons: (i) it allows, simultaneously,
an increase in stability and reduction of settlements, (ii) minor
environmental impact; (iii) greater speed of execution; (iv)
reduced cost; (v) development of machinery which allows the exe-
cution of DMC for larger depths (greater than 40 m) in non-homo-
geneous soil formations, including soft soils, sand, gravel, over
consolidated clays, even weathered soft rocks.
Several scientific papers related to deep mixing technique have
been published in the last decades. Many of them are about labo-
ratory research conducted to study the influence of the binder type
and its quantity on the strength, stiffness, consolidation time and

0266-352X/$ - see front matter Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.compgeo.2011.03.005
 P.J. Venda Oliveira et al. / Computers and Geotechnics 38 (2011) 566–576 567

Nomenclature

CIU isotropically consolidated undrained triaxial test M slope of critical state line on q  p0 plane
eo initial void ratio DN increment in vertical load
kh horizontal permeability coefficient Du excess pore pressure
kv vertical permeability coefficient j swell-recompression index (ln scale)
kv,col vertical permeability coefficient of the DMC k virgin compression index (ln scale)
kv,soil vertical permeability coefficient of the soft soil mv coefficient of volumetric compressibility
K0 coefficient of earth pressure at rest cv coefficient of consolidation
OCR over consolidation ratio DMC deep mixing column
p0 average effective stress WT water table
c unit weigh s column spacing
Dr0v increment in vertical effective stresses r replacement ratio
Drv increment in total vertical stresses w water content
E0 Young’s modulus b binder amount
m0 Poisson ratio D column diameter
eko void ratio for p0 = 1

permeability of the soil-binder mixture, and the factors which can
affect these characteristics, such as: (i) binder characteristics (type
of binder, quality, mixing water and additives); (ii) soil character-
istics (physical, chemical and mineralogical properties); (iii) mix-
ing conditions (time of mixing, quantity of binder); (iv) curing
conditions (temperature, curing time, humidity, confining pres-
sure, wetting and drying) [4–8]. Additionally, some of the research
work is related to the study of the factors which affect the instal-
lation of DMC in the field (number of mixing blades, rotational
speed, etc.) in terms of the main properties of the soil-binder mix-
ture, establishing a comparison with the properties obtained in the
laboratory [8–11].
The numerical analyses that have been published about the
behaviour of embankments (or building foundations) built on soft
soil reinforced with DMC are in general back analyses of case stud-
ies, using numerical analysis with commercial software (PLAXIS,
FLAC, ANSYS, etc.), most of which modelled the behaviour of the
soft soil and the DMC with elastic-perfectly plastic laws using
Mohr–Coulomb failure criterion [12,13–18]. However, the consti-
tutive laws considered to model the behaviour of the soft soil

PLANT S Rotation
axis

S Embankment
(a) W.T.
4.0 m

Embankment
W.T.
DMC

TRANSVERSAL SOIL 20.0 m

CUT
DMC

DMC

DMC

DMC

SOIL

Rigid substratum 0.4 m

1.0 m

(b) (c)
Fig. 1. Embankment on a soft soil reinforced with DMC. (a) Plant; (b) transversal cut; (c) cylindrical unit cell.
568 P.J. Venda Oliveira et al. / Computers and Geotechnics 38 (2011) 566–576

exhibits some limitations and the papers published previously do the settlements with depth; (ii) the evolution of excess pore pres-
not clarify some important aspects, namely: (i) the evolution of sures with depth; (iii) the mechanics of load transfer from the soil
to the columns; (iv) the efficiency of the method during the
consolidation.
The work presented in this paper intends to improve the finite
element (FE) analysis, as well as to clarify the influence of the pre-
Sub-layer D, H =1,0m viously mentioned aspects in large-scale embankments built on
Embankment Sub-layer C, H =1,0m soft soil reinforced with DMC, the study being focused on central
(H = 4.0 m) Sub-layer B, H =1,0m areas of the embankment, i.e., where no lateral displacements are
x
Sub-layer A, H =1,0m expected. In all numerical analyses, the Modified Cam Clay model
associated with Biot’s consolidation theory (i.e., coupled formula-
tion of the interstitial fluid flow and deformation of the solid skel-
z
eton) was used to simulate the behaviour of the soft soil.
This work is divided into two parts. The first part corresponds to
the analysis of an embankment of infinite dimensions built on soft
soil reinforced with DMC, referred to as the base problem. The re-
20.0 m sults are discussed in terms of settlements, excess pore pressures,
increments in vertical effective and total stresses. The second part
of the work is concerned with the analysis of the influence that
some parameters have on the base problem, such as: (i) replace-
ment ratio (or column spacing); (ii) deformability of the embank-
ment; (iii) deformability of the DMC; (iv) coefficient of vertical
permeability of the DMC.
The study was carried out using a two dimensional FE code
0.4 m 0.6 m developed at the University of Coimbra [19,20]. It allows elasto-
DMC Soft soil plastic analyses to be carried out with coupled consolidation, creep
phenomenon [21], geometric non-linearity [22], and incorporates
Fig. 2. FE mesh – base problem. several constitutive laws, such as Modified Cam Clay [23], Melanie
[23], and Lade, MIT-E3 [24,25], among others.

Table 1
Material properties used in numerical analysis – base problem (based on [6,29]).

Material Initial state Elastic parameters Plastic parameters (MCC model) Permeability
K0 c (kN/m3) OCR m0 E0 (MPa) k j ek0 M kv (m/day) kh/kv
Soft soil 0.4a 15.0 1.0 0.3 c
0.25 0.05 3.00 1.5 104 3.0
DMC 0.8b 16.0 – 0.2 100.0 – – – – 105 1.0
Embankment – 22.0 – 0.3 20.0 – – – – – –
a
Evaluated with K0-consolidation triaxial test [6].
b
Established from Åhnberg [26].
c
Calculated by [27]: E0 ¼ 3ð1þe0 jÞð12t0Þ p00 .

3
1200
w113% - b75kg/m
3
w113% - b125kg/m
1100 3
w113% - b175kg/m
1000 3
w113% - b225kg/m
900 3
w98% - b125kg/m
3
800 w80% - b125kg/m
700 numeric model
qu (kPa)

600

500

400

300

200

100

0
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0
axial strain (%)
Fig. 3. Unconfined compression test of soil–binder mixture [6].
 P.J. Venda Oliveira et al. / Computers and Geotechnics 38 (2011) 566–576 569

2. Numerical modelling of the base problem DMC-soil system is simulated by an axisymmetric cylindrical unit
cell (Fig. 1c), consisting of one column and the soft soil correspond-
The base problem consists of a large-scale embankment with a ing to its area of influence. The diameter of the DMC and the unit
height of 4 m built on the ‘‘Baixo Mondego’’ soft soil reinforced cell are 0.8 and 2.0 m, respectively, which corresponds to a dis-
with DMC (Fig. 1). The soft soil is 20 m thick, lying on a rigid and tance between columns of 1.77 m, in a square pattern.
impermeable stratum. The construction of the embankment con- Fig. 2 shows the FE mesh used in the axisymmetric analysis con-
sists of four sub-layers, each one with a 1.0 m thickness applied sisting of 208 eight-noded isoparametric quadrilateral elements
at a time delay of 1 day. and 629 nodal points. In order to simulate the consolidation phe-
Regarding that the study is made for the central area of a large- nomenon, elements with twenty nodal degrees of freedom were
scale embankment, where there are no lateral displacements, the used below the water table, providing quadratic interpolation of

(a) 100
(b) 80

80
60

Δu (kPa)
60
q (kPa)

40
Lab data Lab data
40
Numerical results Numerical results

Analitical solution 20 Analitical solution

20

0 0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 0 2 4 6 8 10 12
εax (%) εax (%)

(c) 100

80
q (kPa)

60

40 Lab data
Numerical results
20 Analitical solution
CSL
0
0 20 40 60 80 100
p' (kPa)
Fig. 4. Observations and numerical predictions of CIU traixial tests for OCR = 1: (a) q  eax representation; (b) Du  eax representation; (c) effective stress paths.

Time (years)
0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0 60.0 70.0
0.0

DMC reinforcement Time (years)

0.0 5.0 10.0 15.0 20.0
-0.5 0
Settlement (m)

x = 0.25 m (DMC)
Settlement (m)

-0.04
x = 0.75 m (Soil)
-1.0
-0.08

-0.12
-1.5
No reinforcement
DMC reinforcement

-2.0

Fig. 5. Settlements vs. time with and without DMC.

570 P.J. Venda Oliveira et al. / Computers and Geotechnics 38 (2011) 566–576

(a) Distance from axysimmetric axis, x (m) (b) Distance from axysimmetric axis, x (m)
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
0.00 -0.07

-0.02
-0.08

Settlement (m)
-0.04
Settlement (m)

-0.09

-0.06

-0.10
-0.08

-0.11
-0.10

DMC DMC
-0.12 -0.12
t = 18 days t = 200 days t = 2 years z = 0.0 m z = 0.5 m z = 1.0 m
t = 5.5 years t = End of cons. z = 3.0 m z = 4.0 m z = 5.0 m

Fig. 6. Base problem. (a) Settlements at the base of the embankment (z = 0 m). (b) Settlements for different depths at the end of consolidation.

displacements and linear interpolation of pore pressures and Δu (kPa)

thereby allowing the calculation of the displacements in eight 0 20 40 60 80 100
nodes and the excess pore pressure in four corner nodes. In order 0
to simulate the great rugosity of the interface between the soil Soil-x = 0.71 m
and DMC induced by the construction process no element joints 2
DMC-x = 0.28 m
were used in these boundaries.
4
The boundary conditions of the mesh were such that both lat-
eral vertical sides were restrained from moving in the horizontal
6
direction, while the bottom boundary was restrained from moving
in both directions (Fig. 1c). In terms of hydraulic conditions, only
Depth, z (m)

8
the top boundary, located at the same level as the water table,
was permeable, i.e., it was assumed that there was no flow of water 10
through the remaining boundaries.
12

14
3. Constitutive models
200 days

18 days
5.5years

2 years
11years

Table 1 shows the main characteristics of the materials used in
the numerical analysis. The behaviour of DMC was modelled by a
linear elastic law, with parameters based on the laboratory re-
search developed by Correia [6]. Thus, the Young modulus of
DMC for the base problem was estimated from the results shown
in Fig. 3, which were obtained from six mixtures of the soft soil
of ‘‘Baixo Mondego’’ with a composite binder (25% slag + 75% Port-
land cement I 42.5R). The amount of binder varied from 75 to
225 kg/m3, the water content of the mixture was 80% (the natural
water content of the soil), 98% and 113%. Regarding the Young
modulus used, Fig. 3 shows a good agreement between the numer-
ical predictions and the general behaviour of DMC.
It is important to enhance that the linear elastic law used to
model the DMC exhibits some important limitations, namely, it
does not allow to simulate the yielding of the top of the DMC
due to low confining stress and high loads, and the bending failure
caused by lateral movements of the columns that can occur at the
columns located under the toe of embankments [28,30]. Neverthe-
less, this model is usually adopted [17,18], because the stress level
is considerably lower than the yielding stress of the DMC material,
due to the safety factors used to reduce the strength properties.
Thus, the choice of the mixture should guarantee that the stress le-
vel is inside the elastic area.
The value of the coefficient of earth pressure at rest (K0 = 0.8)
adopted was derived by Åhnberg work [26].
16
18
20
Fig. 7. Base problem. Excess pore pressure vs. depth in the DMC (x = 0.28 m) and in
the soil (x = 0.71 m).
The behaviour of the normally consolidated soft soil was simu-
lated by the Modified Cam Clay model (MCC), based on isotropic
conditions and uses an isotropic hardening (or softening) rule with
an associated flow law. The parameters were evaluated from labo-
ratorial work carried out at the University of Coimbra [6,29].
The ability of the MCC model to replicate the response of iso-
tropically consolidated samples (OCR = 1) under triaxial loading
in compression path is shown in Fig. 4, using an axisymmetric FE
analysis with the parameters presented in Table 1. The Figure
clearly shows a very good ability of the MCC model to predict
the behaviour of the soil, either in terms of stress–strain behaviour
or effective stress paths. The Figure also reveals an excellent agree-
ment between the numerical results obtained with this code and
the analytical solution [27], which indicates a suitable reliability
of the code. Additionally, the model was also used to simulate
the behaviour of embankments on soft soils with very good results
[22,23].
 P.J. Venda Oliveira et al. / Computers and Geotechnics 38 (2011) 566–576 571

To account for the permeability anisotropy typical of sedimen-
tary soils, a ratio of kh/kv equal to 3 was used, in accordance with
the range observed in similar soils [31].
The embankment material is characterized by an isotropic lin-
ear elastic law, with m0 = 0.3 and E0 = 20 MPa.
4. Analysis of results of the base problem
The effectiveness of the soil foundation reinforced by DMC at
the base problem conditions is analysed in Fig. 5 in terms of the
evolution of settlements over time. The numerical results show
that the inclusion of DMC causes the decrease of the long term set-
tlement from 1.85 m to 0.11 m, which corresponds to an improve-
ment factor (ratio between the settlements of the soil with and
without DMC) of 16.8. At the same time, the DMC reinforcement
induces reduced differential settlements between the soil and the
DMC.
Fig. 5 also shows a shorter time required to stabilize the settle-
ments when the DMC reinforcements are used. The behaviour is
justified by the high stiffness of the DMC in relation to the soft soil,
provided that, for a constant coefficient of permeability, the in-
crease in stiffness (linked to a lesser coefficient of volumetric com-
pressibility, mv) originates a higher coefficient of consolidation (cv),
consequently the velocity of consolidation tends to be faster.
The diagram that illustrates the transversal evolution of the set-
tlements at the base of the embankment (Fig. 6a) shows differen-
tial settlements between the DMC and the soil, which naturally
is caused by the greater deformability of the soil compared to
DMC. However, these differential settlements are very small, and
increase slightly over time, changing from 2.9 mm (18 days) to
8.8 mm (end of consolidation), i.e., from 5.2% to 8.7%. The fact that
the differential settlements are so low is believed to be due to the
‘‘soil arching effect’’ which is due to the shear stress mobilize as a
consequence of relative displacements [32–34]. This effect origi-
nates the transference of stresses from the more deformable mate-
rial (soil) to the more rigid material (DMC), causing a relief in the
vertical soil stresses and a subsequent decrease in differential
settlements.
The transversal evolution of the vertical displacement shows no
pattern with depth (Fig. 6b), whereas close to the surface there is
an area in which the vertical displacement in the soil may be high-

(a) Ds'v (kPa) (b) Δσ'v (kPa)

0 200 400 600 0 3 6 9 12
0 0

2 2 t = 18 days

4 4 t = 200 days
t = 2 years
6 6
t = 5.5 years
Depth, z (m)

Depth, z (m)

8 8 t = End of cons.

10 10

12 12

14 14

16 16

18 18

20 20

Fig. 8. Base problem. Increments of vertical effective stress with depth: (a) DMC (x = 0.28 m), (b) soil (x = 0.71 m).

(a) 600 (b)

z = 0.9 m
500
Embank.
400
t = 18 days
Ds'v (kPa)

Soft
300 t = 200 days
soil
t = 2 years
200
t = 5.5 anos
z = 4.0m

100 t = End of cons.

DMC
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Distance from axysimmetric axis, x (m)

Fig. 9. Base problem. (a) Transversal evolution of the increment of vertical effective stress near the surface (z = 0.9 m). (b) Principal directions of effective stresses at the end
of consolidation.
572 P.J. Venda Oliveira et al. / Computers and Geotechnics 38 (2011) 566–576

er (z = 0.0 m) or lower (z = 1.0 m) than in the DMC. As the depth in-
creases (z > 4.0 m) the differential settlements tends to be practi-
cally nullified.
Fig. 7 shows the evolution of excess pore pressures (Du) in the
soil and in the DMC. The evolution of Du is similar in both materi-
als, even though slightly higher values of Du are seen in the soil
than in the DMC near the surface (z = 0.9 m). However, with depth
the small differences tend to fade.
The diagrams in Figs. 8 and 9 show the evolution of the incre-
ments of vertical effective stresses (Dr0v ) with depth and along
the transversal section (z = 0.9 m), respectively. Over time, the in-
crease of Dr0v in the DMC is rapid near the surface, i.e., at the
permeable boundary. Naturally, with the development of consoli-
dation (decreases of Du with time) Dr0v in the DMC increases and
at the end of consolidation the entire column is subjected to an al-
most uniform Dr0v , absorbing nearly the entire load applied by the
embankment. The figures also show that the Dr0v in the soil is neg-
ligible compared to the DMC, in which the increments are quite
high as a result of the arching effect. However, with depth there
is a slight increase in the soil stresses as a result of the increase in
the Young modulus (expression in Table 1), reducing the relative
stiffness between the soil and the DMC, which leads to a decrease
in the transfer of stresses from the soil to the DMC.
The evolution over time of the increments of total vertical stres-
ses, Drv, (Fig. 10) clearly shows the mechanism of transferring
stresses to the DMC as a result of the arching effect, which is linked
to the rotation of the principal directions of stresses, as shown in
Fig. 9b. The arching effect increases during the consolidation pro-
cess, with a slower evolution with depth, in other words, in the
zone farthest from the drainage boundary.
5. Parametric analyses
In order to better understand the behaviour of the system con-
sisting of the DMC and the surrounding soil, this section covers a

600

500

400
Average value (88 kPa)
Ds v (kPa)

DMC-x = 0.28 m, z = 0.9 m

300
DMC-x = 0.28 m, z = 19.8 m
Soil-x = 0.71 m, z = 0.9 m
200
Soil-x = 0.71 m, z = 19.8 m

100

0
0.0 5.0 10.0 15.0 20.0
Time (years)
Fig. 10. Base problem. Evolution of total vertical stress increment over time on the DMC (x = 0.28 m) and on the soil (x = 0.71 m).

Table 2
Summary of parametric analyses (based on [35]).

Parameter analysed Case Hemb (m) Dcol (m) Dinf (m) r E0emb (MPa) E0col (MPa) kv,soilb (m/day) kv,col (m/day)

Replacement area ratio, r R0 1.5 0.284

R1a 2.0 0.160
R2 4.0 0.8 2.5 0.102 20.0 100.0 104 105
R3 3.0 0.071
R4 4.0 0.040

Embankment deformability, E0emb Ea0 5.0

Ea1 10.0
Ea2a 4.0 0.8 1.5 0.160 20.0 100.0 104 105
Ea3 40.0
Ea4 Var

DMC deformability, E0col Ec0 4.0 0.8 1.5 0.160 20.0 50.0 104 105
Ec1a 100.0
Ec2 150.0
Ec3 200.0
Coefficient of vertical permeability of the DMC, kv,col K0 103
K1 104
K2a 4.0 0.8 1.5 0.160 20.0 100.0 104 105
K3 106
K4 108
a
Base problem.
b
In all cases kh/kv for the soil is 3 (Table 1).
 P.J. Venda Oliveira et al. / Computers and Geotechnics 38 (2011) 566–576 573

sensitivity study to analyse the degree of influence of different Distance from axysimmetric axis, x(m)
parameters on the behaviour of the soil-DMC system during the 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
consolidation phenomenon. The parameters analysed are: (i) -0.10
replacement area ratio (r), which depends on the influence diame-
ter of the column (Dinf); (ii) deformability of the embankment
(E0emb ); (iii) deformability of the DMC (E0col ); (iv) and coefficient of -0.11
vertical permeability of the DMC (kv,col).

Settlement (m)
Table 2 presents a summary of the cases studied in this para-
metric analysis. The remaining conditions and characteristics are
-0.12
the same as the base problem. To study the influence of the
replacement area ratio, the number of finite elements of the mesh DMC
was adjusted in order to take into account the new boundaries of
the problem. In the following paragraph only the most relevant as- -0.13
Ea0 Ea1
pects will be analysed.
Ea2 Ea3
Ea4
-0.14
5.1. Influence of the replacement area ratio
Fig. 12. Influence of the deformability of the embankment. Settlements under the
Considering that the replacement area ratio is defined by: embankment (z = 0 m) at the end of consolidation.

Acol Acol
r¼ ¼ ð1Þ
A Acol þ Asoil
where Acol is the area of the DMC, Asoil is the area of the soft soil sur-
rounding the column in the unit cell and A is the area of the unit
cell, five cases of different replacement area ratios were studied (Ta-
ble 2): 0.284, 0.160, 0.102, 0.071 and 0.040, respectively for cases
R0, R1, R2, R3 and R4. The values of r were calculated by varying
the spacing between the columns, keeping the column diameter
(0.8 m) constant.
The evolution over time of the settlements (Fig. 11a) illustrates
that the increase in the spacing between columns (decrease in r)
induces larger settlements and extends the consolidation time.
The greater amount in the settlements, as a result of the increase
in load transferred to the columns by the arching effect
(Fig. 11b), leads to a reduction of the improvement factor (30.8
for R0; 11.4 for R2; 4.8 for R4). The increase in consolidation time
with the decrease of replacement ratio is justified by the increment
of the soil area (less stiff material). This behaviour comes from the
fact that the consolidation coefficient changes with the stiffness of
the material, as was analysed in Section 4.
The mixtures shown in Fig. 3 are not suitable to be used for the
higher stress levels presented in Fig. 11b. In a real case, a labora-
tory study should be done to define the most suitable mixture
for such high stress levels.
5.2. Influence of the embankment deformability
The influence of the embankment deformability (E0emb ) is stud-
ied by analysing five cases (Table 2) with E0emb of 5 MPa (Ea0 case),
10 MPa (Ea1 case), 20 MPa (Ea2 case), 40 MPa (Ea3 case) and the case
Ea4 where the deformability modulus varies between 40 MPa (bot-
tom layer) and 5 MPa (top layer), thereby reproducing a lesser con-
finement of the upper layers.
The results in Fig. 12 illustrate that the deformability of the
embankment has considerable influence on the magnitude of dif-
ferential settlements. Thus, when the stiffness of the embankment
increases, the arching effect developed in the body of the embank-
ment is more intense, so the load transferred to the columns also
increases, thereby reducing the vertical stresses on the soft soil
and consequently the differential settlements. The case Ea4 proves
that it is the stiffness of the bottom layers of the embankment that
controls the intensity of the arching effect and consequently the
differential settlements.
5.3. Influence of the deformability of the DMC
The influence of the DMC deformability is studied by analysing
four cases (Table 2) with E0col of 50 MPa, 100 MPa, 150 MPa and
200 MPa, respectively for cases Ec0, Ec1, Ec2 and Ec3.

(a) Time (years) (b) Ds'v (kPa)

0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500
0.00 0
2
4
Average settlement (m)

-0.10
6
Depth, z(m)

8
-0.20 10
12 R0
14 R1(*)
-0.30
16 R2
R3
18
R4
-0.40 20

Fig. 11. Influence of the replacement ratio, r. (a) Evolution of the settlements over time. (b) Increment in vertical effective stress in the DMC (x = 0.28 m) vs. depth at the end
of consolidation.
574 P.J. Venda Oliveira et al. / Computers and Geotechnics 38 (2011) 566–576

(a) Distance from axysimmetric axis, x(m) (b) Time (years)

0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 0.0 5.0 10.0 15.0 20.0
0.00 0.00

-0.05 -0.05
Settlemnt (m)

Settlement (m)
-0.10 -0.10

-0.15 -0.15

-0.20 -0.20
Ec0 Ec1 Ec0 Ec1
DMC
Ec2 Ec3 Ec2 Ec3
-0.25 -0.25

Fig. 13. Influence of the DMC deformability. (a) Tranversal evolution of the settlements under the embankment (z = 0 m) at the end of consolidation. (b) Evolution of the DMC
settlement over time.

(a) Time (years) (b)

0.0 5.0 10.0 15.0 20.0 z = 4.8m
0.00 120
K0 - DMC
100 K0 - Soil
-0.02 K0
K2(*) - DMC
K1
Average settlement (m)

80 K2(*) - Soil
-0.04 K2(*)
Du (kPa)

K4 - DMC
K3
60
K4 - Soil
-0.06 K4

40
-0.08
20

-0.10
0
0 2 4 6 8 10
-0.12 Time (years)
Fig. 14. Influence of kv,col. (a) Evolution of the settlements vs. time. (b) Excess pore pressure in the DMC (x = 0.28 m).

(a) 80
z=4.8 m (b) 120 z=4.8 m

100
60
80 t = 18 days
Du (kPa)

Du (kPa)

t = 30 days
40 t = 18 days 60
t = 200 days
t = 30 days
40
t = 1 year
20 t = 200 days
20 t = 5.5 years
t = 1 year
DM C DMC t = 11 anos
0 0
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
Distance from axysimmetric axis, x(m) Distance from axysimmetric axis, x(m)
Fig. 15. Influence kv,col on excess pore pressure. (a) K0 case (kv,col = 103 m/day). (b) K4 case (kv,col = 108 m/day).

The numerical results presented in Fig. 13 show the influence Young modulus of the column increases, the settlements at the
that the deformability of the DMC has on the settlements. As the base of the embankment naturally tend to lessen, keeping the dif-
 P.J. Venda Oliveira et al. / Computers and Geotechnics 38 (2011) 566–576
ferential settlements unchanged, which is surprising. These facts
reflect the preponderant influence of the properties of the column
on the global behaviour of the soil-DMC system. Furthermore, with
the increase in DMC stiffness the consolidation time tends to be
lower, since the coefficient of consolidation (cv) is higher, as ex-
plained in Section 4.
According to expectations, as the DMC stiffness increases, the
concentration of the effective stresses increases in the DMC, as a
consequence of a more expressive arching effect.
5.4. Influence of the coefficient of vertical permeability of the DMC
The influence of the coefficient of vertical permeability of the
DMC is studied by analysing five cases (Table 2) with kv,col of
103 m/d (K0 case), 104 m/d (K1 case), 105 m/d (K2 case), 106
m/d (K3 case) and 108 m/d (K4 case).
The time evolution of the settlements (Fig. 14a) shows that, nat-
urally, the increase in the column’s coefficient of vertical perme-
ability reduces the consolidation time provided that the column
behaves like a drain for higher values of kv,col.
The time evolution of the excess pore pressure in the soil and in
the DMC (Fig. 14b) illustrates that for higher values of kv,col the
pore pressure dissipation is controlled by the coefficient of vertical
permeability of the column, since the Du are more or less constant
in the DMC and in the soil (Fig. 15a). However, for reduced values
of the coefficient of vertical permeability of the column (K4 case),
the dissipation of Du in the column is slower than in the soil, the
vertical flow being controlled fundamentally by the coefficient of
vertical permeability of the soil (Fig. 15b). In this case the column
drains horizontally to the soft soil.
6. Conclusions
The analyses performed in this work revealed the following
aspects:
– The use of DMC to reinforce the foundation soil of an embank-
ment is extremely efficient, producing low settlements and
small differential settlements.
– The consolidation time is reduced with the use of DMC, since
the higher stiffness of the column is associated with a greater
coefficient of consolidation.
– Due to the arching effect, the load applied by the embankment
is fundamentally concentrated on the DMC, the increment in
effective stresses on the soil being negligible.
– According to expectations, as the diameter of influence of DMC
increases (less replacement ratio) the settlements and the incre-
ments in vertical stresses on the DMC tend to be higher.
– Decreasing the deformability of the embankment originates
higher differential settlements, since the relative stiffness of
the DMC vs. surrounding soil tends to be lower, inducing a
reduction in the arching effect.
– The behaviour of the soil-DMC system is fundamentally con-
trolled by the properties of the column, in both mechanical and
hydraulic terms; thus, the increase of the Young modulus of the
DMC reduces the settlements and the consolidation time, despite
the higher concentration of vertical effective stresses on the DMC.
– When the permeability of the DMC is higher than the perme-
ability of the soil, the column behaves like a vertical drain con-
trolling the water flow of the soil-DMC system; when the
permeability of the DMC is lower than the permeability of the
soil the water flow occurs fundamentally in the soil and the col-
umn drains horizontally to the soil.
– The consolidation time of the soil-DMC system depends not
only of the permeability but also of the stiffness of the DMC.
575
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to express their gratitude to the institu-
tions that financially supported the research: CIEC and FCT (PTDC/
ECM/101875/2008).
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