Abstract: A physical model facility was designed, built, and setup for conducting model tests on a composite foundation in a soil ground. The model tests were carried out on a composite foundation with different combinations of vertical reinforcement elements in the same soil ground. Via the analysis of the collected data the characteristics of the composite foundation with different reinforcing elements were obtained, including the characteristics of load-settlement curves, column stresses, stresses of the inter-column soil, pile-soil stress ratio, and load-sharing ratios of columns and soil. Results from the model tests reveal the mechanism of a composite foundation with different reinforcing elements quantitatively. It is concluded that both a composite foundation with a combination of steel pipe pile and sand column and that with a combination of concrete pile and lime column have a higher bearing capacity than the composite foundation with only sand columns with the same conditions of soil ground and loading. A composite foundation with lime column and sand column embodies no much better performance than that with sand columns only.

Key words: Steel pipe pile, Concrete pile, Lime column, Sand column, Composite foundation, Model test, Pile-soil stress ratio

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