Abstract This paper presents the results of a laboratory investigation into the performance of geosynthetic-encased stone column-improved (GESC-improved) soft clay under vertical cyclic loading. A reduced-scale model is adopted to perform a series of tests considering the principal parameters, such as the cyclic loading characteristics, including the loading frequency and amplitude, and the encasement length. The results indicate that, among other things, the overall benefit of the geosynthetic encasement of stone columns installed in soft clay is greater under cyclic loading than under static loading, and that the cyclic effect tends to lead to a stress concentration ratio that is smaller than that under static loading. The effectiveness of this encasement in improving the performance of GESCs becomes greater when subjected to cyclic loading with a lower loading frequency and/or a smaller amplitude. The settlement and pore pressure variations with the encasement length, together with the exhumed GESCs taken after the tests, suggest that full encasement is necessary to maximize the performance of GESCs under cyclic loading.

中文翻译：

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土工合成材料包裹石柱改良软粘土在竖向循环荷载作用下的性能

摘要 本文介绍了土工合成材料包裹石柱改进（GESC 改进）软粘土在垂直循环荷载下的性能的实验室调查结果。考虑到循环加载特性（包括加载频率和振幅）以及包裹长度等主要参数，采用缩尺模型进行了一系列测试。结果表明，除其他外，安装在软粘土中的石柱的土工合成材料在循环加载下的整体效益大于静载下，并且循环效应倾向于导致应力集中比小于在静态负载下。当受到具有较低加载频率和/或较小振幅的循环加载时，这种外壳在提高 GESC 性能方面的有效性变得更大。沉降和孔隙压力随包裹长度的变化，以及测试后取出的 GESC，表明完全包裹是必要的，以最大限度地提高 GESC 在循环载荷下的性能。