A numerical model is proposed to analyse elastic as well as elastoplastic behaviour of stone-column reinforced foundations. The stone-columns are assumed to be dispersed within the in situ soil and a homogenization technique is invoked to establish equivalent material properties for in situ soil and stone-column composite. The difficulties encountered in carrying out elastoplastic analyses of composite materials are overcome by adopting a separate yield function for each of the constituent materials and a sub-iteration procedure within an implicit backward Euler stress integration scheme. In the proposed procedure, equilibrium as well as kinematic conditions implied in the homogenization procedure are satisfied for both elastic as well as elastoplastic stress states.
The proposed model is implemented in an axi-symmetric finite element code and numerical prediction is made for the behaviour of model circular footings resting on stone-column reinforced foundations. This prediction indicates good agreement with experimental observation. Finally, a new scheme in which the length of stone-column is variable is proposed and its behaviour is examined through a numerical example.