Design of Column-Reinforced Foundations

Mounir Bouassida is a professor of civil engineering at the Ecole Nationale d’Ingénieurs de Tunis (ENIT) of the Université de Tunis—El Manar where he earned his B.S., M.S., Ph.D., and doctorate of sciences diplomas, all in civil engineering. He currently teaches soil mechanics and limit analysis courses at ENIT and the Polytechnic School of Tunisia. He is the director of the Research Laboratory in Geotechnical Engineering and has supervised 13 Ph.D. and 29 master of science graduates. His research focuses on soil improvement techniques and behaviour of soft clays. Dr Bouassida is the co-author of 42 papers in refereed international journals; 126 papers, including 17 keynote lectures from international conferences; and a book related to testing in soil mechanics. He is a member of the editorial committees of the journal Ground Improvement (ICE), the Journal of Geotechnical and Geological Engineering, Infrastructure Innovative Solutions (Springer), and International Journal of Geomechanics (ASCE). He is also an active reviewer in several international journals, including the Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering and the Canadian Geotechnical Journal. As a 2006 Fulbright scholar, Professor Bouassida created a novel methodology for the design of foundations on reinforced soil by columns. He was awarded the 2006 S. Prakash Prize for Excellence in the practice of geotechnical engineering. In 2008, Bouassida launched a Tunisian consulting office in geotechnical engineering, SIMPRO. He is a co-developer of the software Columns 1.01 used for designing column-reinforced foundations. Prof. Bouassida held the office of the vice president of ISSMGE for Africa (2005-2009). He benefited from several grants as a visiting professor in the USA (CSUS and MIT), France (ENPC, Paris, Ecole Centrale de Lille, and Ecole des Mines Douai), Belgium (Catholic University of Louvain-La Neuve), and Australia (University of Newcastle).

• Chapter 1: An Introduction to Column-reinforced Foundations1.1 Ground Improvement Techniques1.2 Reinforcement by Columns 1.3 Modeling of Column-reinforced Foundation 1.4 Installation of Columns1.5 Conclusion Chapter 2: Predicting the Ultimate Bearing Capacity of Column-reinforced Foundations2.1 Introduction2.2 Design Methods for Isolated Column and Trench Models2.3 Ultimate Bearing Capacity of Column-reinforced Foundation by the Unit Cell Model2.4 Ultimate Bearing Capacity of Column-reinforced Foundation2.5 ConclusionsChapter 3: Settlement Predictions of Foundations on Reinforced Soil by Columns3.1 Introduction3.2 Classification of Methods for the Prediction of Settlement of Reinforced Soil by Columns3.3 Empirical and Semi-empirical Methods3.4 Settlement Prediction by the Unit Cell Model3.5 Settlement Predictions by the Group of Columns Model3.6 Assessment of Settlement Predictions by Scaled and Full-scale Models3.7 ConclusionsChapter 4: Novel Methodology for Design of Column-reinforced Foundations4.1 Introduction4.2 Problem Statement4.3 Bearing Capacity of CRF4.4 Settlement of Column-reinforced Foundations4.5 Illustrative Case HistoriesFoundation (Tunisia)4.6 ConclusionsChapter 5: On the Behavior of Improved Soft Clay by Stone Column Installation5.1 Introduction 5.2 Stone Column Installation in Soft Clay5.3 Simulation of Stone Column Installation in Soft Soils5.4 Acceleration of Settlement in Post-final Loading5.5 Conclusions Appendix 5.1 Behavior of Normally Consolidated Soft ClaysAppendix 5.2 Details of the Poroelastic ModelChapter 6: Behavior of Foundations on Soils Reinforced by Columns6.1 Introduction 6.2 Study of Reinforced Soil Behavior: Selected Case Histories and Axisymmetric Analyses Modeling6.3 ConclusionsForthcoming Development