Offshore Stone Columns – Equipment, Quality Control and Outlook for Future Applications

Wilhelm S. Degen, Eleonora Di Mario

Betterground (HK) Ltd.
Hong Kong SAR

ABSTRACT

Stone columns are increasingly used in offshore applications in order to

improve the soil bearing capacity, reduce settlement of foundations and
to mitigate the potential of liquefaction. This paper describes typical
applications and state-of-the-art installation techniques. In addition, key
construction aspects of offshore technology are discussed, focusing on
different installation methods and technical factors to be considered
when selecting the equipment.
Figure 2. Differential water head for onshore and offshore installation, ,
adapted from Al-Homoud and Degen (2006)
KEY WORDS: Stone Column; offshore; foundation; equipment; Therefore, the offshore installation of stone columns should use the
quality control. Bottom Feed system, whereby the gravel is transported in a separate
tremie pipe that is mounted alongside the Vibroflot (see Figure 3). In
order to achieve a positive gravel flow (out of the tremie pipe and never
INTRODUCTION in reverse direction), the tremie pipe needs to be put under an inside
Stone columns are granular columns made of gravel size aggregate. The pressure that it at all times higher than the ambient pressure in the subsoil
oldest method to install such columns onshore is known as Wet Top around the tip of the Vibroflot. Special equipment has been invented and
Feed. It is carried out by penetrating in to the ground a depth vibrator, or patented (EP1367180A1) by the first author and applied on several sites
so called Vibroflot, and then feeding the gravel against the upstreaming to assure this controlled gravel flow at large water depths. This paper
flushing water down the hole that was previously washed out by the same will mainly focus on the technology of this installation method.
Vibroflot, as shown in Figure 1. The column is built from the bottom to
the top. The Vibroflot moves up/down and the number of such up/down
stokes in each depth increment controls the produced diameter. In the
marine environment, a 3.0 to 3.5 m thick gravel blanket is initially placed
on the seabed. This blanket will feed the stone columns. The maximum
stone column length that can be constructed using this method is in the
order of 10 to 15 m as longer columns may be starved out of stone in the
top meters of the columns.
Figure 3. Bottom Feed installation

OFFSHORE STONE COLUMNS PROJECTS

Seawall for Harbour of Patras, Greece
The marine structures of the old Patras Harbor in Greece were built
directly on the seabed without ground improvement. The seabed consists
of a normally consolidated soft clay layer that was 30 to 38 m thick.
Figure 1. Wet Top Feed installation These structures were subject to settlements in the order of 3 to 4 m due
to a series of moderate earthquakes of magnitude 3.5 to 4.5 that occurred
The stability of the annular space around the Vibroflot is achieved by in the Patras Gulf in 1984. Therefore, the breakwaters of the new harbor
maintaining the water level in the hole higher that the water table in the built around 2001 were founded on stone columns to increase the
surrounding soil. However, this is not feasible when the installation is stability is seismic conditions. A typical section of the breakwater is
carried out under water, as shown in Figure 2. The lack of differential shown in Figure 4. The stone columns were installed up to 20 m depth
water head makes this simple installation method often not suitable for under up to 32 m water depth using bottom feed method. They were
offshore applications (Hamidi et al., 2013). 1.0 m diameter and were arranged in triangular grids of 2.7 m to 3.3 m.
 manufactured for this project in order to fulfill such requirements.

Figure 4. Typical breakwater section in the Harbour of Patras, adapted

from Debats and Degen (2001)

Richards Bay, South Africa

In Richards Bay, South Africa a coal terminal was extended around 2002 Figure 6. HKBCF typical seawall section (Arup Website, 2019)
with quay walls constructed with large concrete caissons. The natural
seabed consisting of soft clay and silt was partially dredged and replaced STONE COLUMNS INSTALLATION EQUIPMENT
with silty sand. Stone columns were adopted to both reduce the
magnitude of the consolidation settlement of the natural seabed left in The Vibroflot
place and to increase the densification level of the reclaimed soil. Due to The depth vibrator known as vibroflot is the key equipment in the
the variability of the soil to be treated, the stone columns were installed installation of stone columns. It is a machine that vibrates at a frequency
with variable diameter increasing the diameter in the layers that needed of 30 Hz with amplitudes of typically over 20 mm. The vibration is
higher improvement to fulfill the design requirements. The installation created by a 130 kW rated electric motor that can for short peak times
was carried out up to 15m depth with bottom feed method from a barge draw about double this energy. The vibration waves are horizontally
prior to the placement of the caissons, as shown in Figure 5. polarized due to the motion of the vibroflot, which is beneficial to
maximize the horizontal confinement stresses between soil and column.
A vibroflot has to be slim enough to penetrate through medium dense to
dense soil while, on the other hand, should be large enough to contain a
powerful electric motor and heavy enough eccentrical rotating weights
to generate the vibration. Several vibroflot models have been developed
in the past years, from those suitable to build small columns without
inducing excessive vibrations in neighboring buildings to giant large area
vibrators for compacting the sand of land reclamations. The B27 model
described in Table 1 and Figure 7 has shown to be an ideally balanced
design for offshore stone columns. It has excellent penetration capability
and it well compacts sandy soils while installing stone columns.
Table 1. Features of vibroflot B27
Frequency 60 Hz Eccentric Force 240 kN
Rotation Speed 1,800 rpm Amplitude 24 mm
Figure 5. Stone columns installation at Richard Bay Motor Force 130 kW Weight 2,200 kg

Hong Kong Boundary Crossing Facility (HKBCF), Hong Kong

The HFBCF was constructed as part of the Zhuhai-Macau-Hong Kong
Bridge project on 130 hectares reclaimed island. Due to environmental
consideration, the reclamation was fully non-dredged for the first time
ever in Hong Kong. Therefore, the marine deposits consisting of very
soft clay and silts were left in place underneath the footprint of the entire
island. The seawall consisted of 30 meters diameter cellular steel
caissons with a rubble mound slope placed as wave protection on the sea
side. A typical section of the seawall is shown in Figure 6. On this project
over 1 million meters of stone columns were installed to both accelerate
the consolidation of the soft sediments and to provide short term stability
of the seawall during construction. The stone columns were in part
installed offshore to a depth of over 38 m with an average diameter of
1.0 meter and in part they were installed onshore inside the previously
constructed caissons.
One of the main challenges in this project consisted in the installation of
offshore columns under severe height restrictions due to the vicinity to
the existing Hong Kong International Airport. The bottom feed
equipment provided by Betterground was specifically designed and Figure 7. Vibroflot B27
Figure 8 below shows a B27 on a rig just hauled in for servicing. This The functionality of the Double Lock system in offshore applications can
type of equipment was operated from a 30 m x 30 m moon pool on a be summarized as follows (refer to Figure 10):
4,000 ton jack up barge that can operate three such rigs at the same time. • A stone column (19) has being installed by the vibroflot (15).
In this figure it is possible to observe the vibroflot nose cone (in the During this operation, the lock tank (12) contains a batch of gravel
center) with an 8-inch diameter gravel tremie pipe (on the left) and a and both lock gates are closed;
water jet pipe (on the right). Such jet pipe can be used to supply jetting • The gravel is transported to the receiver tank (10) by either of these
water up to 12 bar pressure in order to aid the penetration of the vibroflot methods:
through hard or sticky soil layers. a) gravel flows via a so-called Gravel Pump from a hopper (5)
into a blow tank (6) from where it is pumped by either water
or air through a hose (8) to the receiver tank, or
b) gravel is transported to the receiver tank by a bucket (17) that
runs on a second crane line;
• Gravel is stored in the receiver tank until the silo tube (14) is empty;
• The lower lock gate (13) opens and a full batch of gravel flows from
the lock tank (12) into the silo tube (14). During this time the upper
lock gate (11) must be maintained closed, to assure that the tremie
pipe (16) is permanently under positive air;
• Once the lock tank is emptied into the silo tube, the lower lock gate
closes and only thereafter the upper lock gate opens to let the gravel
fall from the receiver tank to the lock tank.
a) b)

Figure 8. Vibroflot with nose cone, tremie pipe and water jet pipe

The Double Lock System

Traditionally, the tremie pipe of the bottom feed system was maintained
under pressure by injecting pressurized air and, at the same time, locking
the top of the pipe with a single lock gate. However, this lock gate had
to be periodically opened to feed a batch the stones into the tremie pipe.
During such feeding operation, the tip of the vibroflot was rested into the
previously constructed column in order to prevent the soil to flow into
the pipe and clog the system (see Figure 9). During the years, the depth
of stone columns on land-based sites was rising and, at some point, it
became clear that for depths over 20 m there were problems with feeding
the gravel out of the tremie pipe due to clogging. These issues occurred
particularly in soft silty or clayey soil and under large ground water
pressure. In such conditions, it became obvious that the shear strength of
the column surrounding the tip of the vibroflot was not sufficient to resist
the tendency of the soil to flow into the tremie pipe due to the differential
pressure created when the single lock gate opened at the top of the rig.
In order to overcome this problem, the so called “Double Lock” system
was invented, which since then has safely prevented such “reverse Figure 10. Double Lock System, adapted from Degen (2014)
circulation” of soil into the tremie pipe. This system should always be
used for the installation of offshore stone columns in soft soil. EQUIPMENT VARIATIONS AND THEIR SELECTION
General Considerations
Penetration and compaction capability of the vibroflot are generally the
factors that influence the most the performance of the stone columns
installation. However, the time efficiency of the system adopted to feed
the gravel is also of great importance. In order to select the optimal gravel
transport system in offshore application, the following parameters should
be considered:
• Water depth (from highest water level to seabed);
• Column length (from seabed to maximum treatment depth); and
• Average column diameter, as it governs the total amount of gravel
needed per each column.
The selection and set up of the equipment should also consider the waves
and the water current for which the system has to be operational. When
the installation is carried out in open water, the barge should have
specific requirements to allow the functionality of the vibro equipment.
This section shows different set up solutions based on these general
Figure 9. Stones feeding with single lock system considerations.
Equipment for Shallow Water The limitation of the skip bucket is that such system is not easily operated
In relatively shallow water and, in general, when the column length is under water and, therefore, the top of the rig has to “stick out of the
much larger than the water depth, a skip bucket rig is a highly suitable water” at any time during the installation to allow the gravel to flow from
feeding system. The skip bucket is filled on the barge and then travels up the skip bucket into the hopper. Hence, the bottom feed rig has to be built
to the top of the rig to feed the stones through a hopper into the receiving with a total minimum length equal to the treatment depth plus the water
tank. The skip bucket can travel independently from the up/down motion depth. For this reason, the skip bucket is generally adopted in shallow
of the vibro equipment and the number of bucket supply cycles for each water where the cost of the extra length of the bottom feed rig is
column is unlimited for this feeding process. Therefore, such system is compensated by the simplicity and cost-effectiveness of feeding system.
useful to construct large diameter columns that require a large amount of
gravel for each installation point. Equipment for Deep Water
For water depths larger than approximately 10 m, it becomes desirable
There are several possible arrangements of the loading facilities on the to have a vibro rig submersible. Generally, the rig is designed to have the
deck of barge for the skip bucket system. Based on our experience, two top part “sticking out of the water” at least when the tip of the vibro is
types of arrangement are particularly efficient, as shown in the figures touching the seabed. A GPS antenna is fixed to the top of the rig. This
below. Figure 11 shows a skip bucket rig with a loading facility that can allows to rely on the above-water D-GPS technology for navigation to
travel on a rail along the long side of the barge to meet the vibro rig at set the coordinated of each compaction point. Adopting such design, the
convenient locations, depending on the boom angle of the crane. The bottom feed rig has to be built with a total minimum length equal to the
following Figure 12 shows a variant of the skip bucket loading system maximum between the treatment depth and the water depth. An example
with the gravel supplied from a secondary barge. This has the great of equipment for deep water is shown below in Figure 13.
benefit that a standard land-based skip bucket rig can be used and the
only specialty equipment required is the special gravel supply excavator
with a trap door shovel.

Figure 13. Submersible rig with water pump

When a submersible rig is used, the skip bucket is not suitable as a
feeding method and the gravel has to be supplied via a Gravel Pump. In
this situation, the gravel is transported by pressurized air or water and it
is good practice to wash the stones before pumping them to reduce the
risk of clogging the hoses. Figure 14 shows a vibro rig suspended from
Figure 11. Feeding system with skip bucket a crane beam at the beginning of a column installation (the top is still
outside the water). In this set up, the vibro rig travels into position using
a gantry crane. In this picture, it is possible to see two conveyor belts
transporting the gravel into the tanks, from where the stones are
transported mixed with water through a 6-inch hose to the submersible
vibro rig. Any skip bucket system would have been challenged to work
in such geometry and at comparable speed.

TANKS VIBRO

Figure 12. Variant with skip bucket rig and secondary barge Figure 14. Submersible rig with water pump
Equipment for Moderate Treatment Depth and/or Diameter
For a moderate column length and/or for small diameter columns, the Figure 17 shows the three double lock rigs that were set up on the jack
loading of the vibro rig can be organized to happen only once per each up platform. Two are suspended on cantilever beams on the left and the
stone column. This can generally be done when the total amount of right of the barge, while the third rig operates in the moon pool. These
gravel necessary to construct one column is less than 5 m3 approximately, rigs could be operational with wave height up to about 1.6 m.
depending on the actual characteristics of the vibro equipment. An
example of this arrangement is shown in Figure 15. The equipment
shown in the sketch includes a lock tank and a hopper designed to have
a capacity of 4.2 m3 and 2.0 m3, respectively. In this example, the 6.2 m3
of gravel that can be stored in the rig would allow to produce columns of
80 cm diameter up to approximately 12 m depth.

Figure 17. Equipment set up on the jack up platform

The combined width of both sides of the platform is equal to the width
of the work area inside the moon pool. This geometry allows to move
the platform by the width of the moon pool and then “fill the gaps” in the
stone column grids, as shown below in Figure 18. However, this also
means that all three vibro rigs have to work at almost all times in
coordination such that the respective work areas are completed at about
the same time to achieve maximum efficiency. Despite this challenge,
this project, that lasted for over two years, was completed ahead of
schedule.

Figure 15. Equipment for single feeding cycle

Equipment to Work in Open Water

The installation of stone columns in open water should preferably be
carried out by a jack up barge. Figure 16 shows a custom built 4000-ton
platform that was used to install stone columns under the footprint of
over 2 km of seawall in a Mediterranean port during almost the full year. Figure 18. Underwater view of the jack up platform
The ability of this jack up platform to stand 5 m above the water table
The setup of the equipment in open water conditions should also consider
while operating with large gantry cranes limited significantly the
the water current intensity. In 2006 the Bay Area Rapid Transit Authority
interruptions due to waves and wind.
(BART) commissioned a pilot trial for the retrofit of the subway tunnel
that connects San Francisco with Oakland. During such trial, eighty-
eight stone columns were installed offshore as close as 1.5 m to the
existing BART tunnel structure. The vibro equipment was a free hanging
rig for deep water conditions operated without a vertical leads system.
However, the water current in the Bay of San Francisco had an effect on
the out-of-vertical attitude of the vibro rig stronger than expected. Due
to the relatively small number of columns to be installed, the daily
production time was reduced to maximum 30 minutes before and after
the minimum tide, when the flow velocities of the water were low
enough to allow the rig to penetrate sufficiently vertical into the soil.
The currents in the Bay of San Francisco were of much higher magnitude
compared to any of the other projects that have been done with free
hanging equipment, such as Patras, Richards Bay and other ports in the
Mediterranean Sea. In future projects with similar strong currents, it is
recommended that either piling leads or templates at the seabed are used
Figure 16. Jack up platform to work in open water to improve the verticality of the rig.
 All three above graphs are instructive for various aspects of quality
OFFSHORE QUALITY CONTROL control. This means that there is not one individual way to plot the quality
control data for offshore stone columns and the contractor should
Monitoring and Operator Guidance System provide all of them to get a full picture of the installation process.
Offshore stone columns are for their nature difficult to inspect. It is
therefore crucial that an integrated monitoring and operator guidance
system is adopted during installation to both achieve a high-quality
product and provide quality control data to be reviewed post-installation.
This system can be programmed with the relevant stone column
installation parameters (treatment depth, column diameter as function of
depth and soil type) in advance. The operator operates the crane wire
rope driving the rig up and down to install the stone column following
the real-time instructions provided by the system, as shown below in
Figure 19. During such process, the gravel supply management,
including the operation of the gravel pump, the multiple lock gates, and
air and water supply valves are computer-controlled.

Figure 20. Different ways to plot monitoring data

CURRENT APPLICATIONS OF OFFSHORE STONE COLUMNS

Offshore stone columns are currently used to improve the mechanical
properties of the foundation soils underneath seawalls, breakwaters and
reclamations. One of the main advantages of the stone columns is that
the same product can be used to achieve different purposes, such as:
• provide immediate increase of the shear strength of natural soils to
improve the slope stability during construction;
• provide a drainage path into cohesive soils to accelerate the
consolidation process. Compared to prefabricated vertical drains, the
drainage path offered by stone columns remains effective even after
a significant settlement has already occurred;
• compact sandy soils to mitigate the potential of liquefaction.
Stone columns are a very ductile system that can overall cope well with
the level of deformations often observed during the construction of
Figure 19. Monitoring and operator guidance system marine works, especially when the founding soil consists of soft clayey
and silty sediments. In addition, stone columns have the great advantage
Quality Control Data compared to piles and other ground improvement techniques that they
Installation parameters are recorded in real time by the monitoring can be installed with a variable diameter in order to concentrate the use
system. Quality control procedures based on the monitoring data can be of material and installation effort in the soil layers that require the highest
successfully implemented only if such data is recorded at intervals of one level of improvement.
second or less (Degen et al., 2017). One of the key monitored parameters
is intensity of the electric current (amperage) necessary to vibrate the A typical example of the implementation of offshore variable diameter
equipment into the soil. This parameter is well correlated to the type and columns is the installation of tapered columns in normally consolidated
density of the soil material encountered. marine deposits, as shown in Figure 21. In such soil conditions the
undrained shear strength of the soil typically increases with depth. In
Figure 20 shows different ways to plot the installation parameters. These addition, the upper layer of soil is subject to the largest shear stresses
three plots consist of: induced by the construction of the breakwater. Therefore, in this case it
• Ampere over Depth – on the left: this plot shows a strong increase in is desirable to install larger diameter columns in the top meters of the
amperage at about 20 m depth, indicating the boundary between the seabed.
softer soil that needs improvement and the underlying funding soil.
In this graph it is not clear, however, if there are irregularities in the
construction of the column.
• Ampere and Depth over Time – in the middle: this plot shows a short
penetration phase followed by a longer installation phase, during
which the up/down motions of the vibroflot allow to build the
column. It can be observed that around minute 8:00 the vibroflot was
pulled out of the soil and then repenetrated to depth. In this plot it is
noticeable the nature of the irregularity but it is not clear the effect
on the diameter of the column.
• Column Diameter over Depth – on the right: this plot refers to the
same column shows in the middle plot. This profile is obtained by Figure 21. Sketch adapted from CEDD Hong Kong (2003)
integrating the data of plot of the up-down motions with the
information about the quantity of gravel supplied. In this plot a bottle Another case suitable to the installation of variable diameter stone
neck in the column can be detected at the position of the black arrow. columns is the mitigation of liquefaction potential of subsoil that
includes different material types. The quality control of stone columns
installed under a shipping pier for such purpose is shown in Figure 22. Wind Turbine Foundations
In this project, the earthquake intensity was very high and the designer Stone columns can be adopted to enhance the performance of wind
prescribed the installation of columns up to 1.60 m diameter in the silty turbine foundations and to provide more economical solutions. With
sands and sandy silts. On the other hand, the underlying clean sand layer reference to the different foundation systems shown in Figure 24, stone
could be compacted upon vibration. The compaction effect makes the columns can be used with the following purposes:
soil itself dilatant, hence not liquefiable, such that the reinforcement and (a) Gravity-based foundations can benefit from stone columns to raise
drainage effect of a large column is less needed. Therefore, the column their bearing capacity and reduce total and differential settlement
diameter could be reduced to 0.80 m in this layer. The high ampere through a combination of soil reinforcement (silty and clayey soil)
reading observed for the sand in the quality control plot are indicative of and compaction (sandy and gravely soil).
a good compaction level achieved in this layer. (b) Monopile foundations can be more efficiently designed if stone
columns increase the stiffness of the surrounding soil. The soil is
laterally prestressed by the stone columns and can thereby provide
more lateral support to the monopile. The stone columns also provide
soil drainage to prevent the buildup of excess pore pressures under
cyclic loading from wind and waves. Considering the improved
lateral support given by the stone columns, smaller size monopiles
should become feasible. Some monopile foundation suffers from
very long-term lateral deformations that result in a progressive
leaning of the pile. This can become relevant in the lifetime of the
foundation as there are limits to the tolerated inclination. Stone
columns installed with very high vibroflot ampere can cause in-situ
soil deformations in the near range of such a leaning pile. Such
Figure 22. Variable diameter columns in layered soil induced deformation could counteract and, in some case, even
reverse such unwanted rotation of a monopile in its upper sections.
FUTURE APPLICATIONS FOR OFFSHORE STONE COLUMNS (c) Caisson foundations are less in number than gravity-based or
Protection of Coastal Cities from Rising Sea Level monopile foundations, but they also can benefit from stone columns.
In the recent years, it became clear that the progressive rise of the mean (d) & (e) Stone columns installed with the double lock stone delivery
sea level will demand the implementation of large projects to protect system can be installed to water depths well over 30 m and can
coastal cities from flooding. What was in the past a Dutch specialty, improve the bearing and lateral capacity of these foundation systems.
securing land that lies near the coast several meters below the sea level
with a massive scheme of dikes and storm barriers, will be very soon
exported around the world. Cities like Jakarta must execute bold plans to
secure them from inundation in less than one or two decades from now.
Figure 23 below is taken from an Indonesian newspaper and shows the
size of such plans.
The experience gained with the artificial islands in Dubai can only be
partially used here. In Dubai the water depth was 15 m maximum and
the seabed was mostly composed of stable sandstone deposits. In many
Asian coastal cities, the seabed near the shore consists of 10 m or more
of marine deposits, comprising soft clays and silts. These soils cannot be
treated by compaction like in Dubai, as clays do not compact under
vibration like sands or gravels. The alternatives in such soil conditions
are either cementitious ground improvement or stone columns. The latter
method, if feasible in a project, is generally more cost effective. In
addition, the use underwater of natural gravel instead of cement is Figure 24. Sketch adapted from Kallehave (2015)
preferable from an environmental point of view. Further considerations
on design of seawalls founded on stone columns can be found in Degen CONCLUSIONS
et al. (2017). This paper compared the equipment used for the installation of stone
columns onshore and offshore. In general, the main differences are:
• In offshore applications stone columns should always be installed
with the bottom feed method, because the top feed method is not
effective and reliable under water; and
• The use of the Double Lock system is recommended to prevented the
“reverse circulation” of soil into the tremie pipe.
Different variations of the equipment are available for offshore stone
columns. The skip bucket rig is usually preferable in shallow water while
the feeding system with gravel pump is more suitable in deep water.
Besides water depth, the amount of gravel needed per column is relevant
for selecting the optimal equipment. If columns are either short enough
or small enough in diameter to not consume more than a certain amount
of gravel, a one-time filled rig instead of one with continuous gravel
filling capability can in certain cases be more cost effective. It is
Figure 23. Giant Sea Wall planning in Jakarta therefore during the tender stage of projects important to have a clear
layout of the project geometries, informing about water depth, column
length and average expected column diameter in all construction zones.
Real time monitoring data should be recorded at intervals of one second
or less. The evaluation of this data should be undertaken by plotting:
• Ampere over Depth;
• Ampere and Depth over Time; and
• Column Diameter over Depth.

Stone columns are in the opinion of the authors not yet considered in a
sufficient number of projects to complement or replace concrete or steel
piling, for example in ways as suggested in Fig. 24 herein. This may be
due to lack of understanding how columns can be produced offshore with
sufficient quality and it is hoped that this paper helps to increase their
acceptance among designers of offshore structures.

REFERENCES
Al-Homoud, A, and Degen, W (2006). Marine Stone Columns to prevent
earthquake induced soil liquefaction, Geotechnical & Geological
Engineering, 24 (3), 775-790.
Arup Website (visited on 01/2019) https://www.arup.com/projects/ hong-
kong-zhuhai-macau-bridge-hong-kong-boundary-crossing-facilities.
CEDD Hong Kong (2013). Port Works Design Manual: Part 4 - Guide to
Design of Seawalls and Breakwaters.
Debats, JM, and Degen, WS (2001). "Marine Stone Columns at Patras
(Greece) Harbor Extension – Phase II", Satellite Symposium of 15th
International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical
Engineering, Istanbul.
Degen, AM, Degen, WS, European Patent EP1367180A1 Vorrichtung zur
Herstellung von Materialsäulen im Boden.
Degen, WS (2014). Advances in equipment and quality control for offshore
and onshore Stone Columns and Vibro Compaction,” Proc 18th Annual
National Conf. on Geotech. Eng., Jakarta, 251-255.
Degen, WS, Miao, C, Di Mario, E, Mills, MG, Turnbull, CB (2017).
Sloping Rubble Marine Seawalls founded on soft soil improved by stone
columns, Deep Foundation Institute Annual Conference, New Orleans.
Hamidi, B, Debats, JM, Nikraz, H, Varaksin, S (2013). Offshore ground
improvement records. Australian Geomechanics Journal 48(4):111-
122.
Kallehave D (2015). Optimization of monopiles for offshore wind turbines.
Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A373:20140100.