Geo-Congress 2020
Numerical Analysis of Geosynthetic-Reinforced Pile-Supported Embankments Subjected to Different Surface Loads
Publication: Geo-Congress 2020: Engineering, Monitoring, and Management of Geotechnical Infrastructure (GSP 316)
ABSTRACT
Geosynthetic-reinforced pile-supported (GRPS) embankments, as an economic and effective construction technique to reduce total and differential settlements, have been widely used in soft soils. Soil arching and tensioned membrane effects are two main load transfer mechanisms for this GRPS embankment system. Most studies have been done so far to investigate the GRPS embankment under uniform surface loading. However, embankments (e.g., highway and railway embankments) are often subjected to localized surface loading. In this study, two three-dimensional (3-D) finite element models were adopted to investigate the effect of different surface loads (uniform and localized) on the load transfer mechanisms in the GRPS embankments. A basic 3-D model was first established and verified against an existing laboratory test. A series of 3-D numerical analysis considering different surface loads was conducted. Simulation results showed that the GRPS embankment system performed better under uniform surface loading than under localized surface loading in terms of its deformation and load transfer. The load transferred by soil arching under localized surface loading was lower than that under uniform surface loading, while the load transferred by the tensioned membrane effect under localized surface loading was higher than that under uniform surface loading.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors appreciate the financial support provided by the Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (Grant No. 51478349, No. 41772281 & No. 51508408) and the Key Research and Development Project of Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology (Grant No. 2016YFE0105800). This study was also financially supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant No. 22120180106) and the Geosynthetic Institute (GSI) Fellowship for the second author. This paper was completed while the second author was a visiting scholar at the University of Kansas, which was sponsored by the China Scholarship Council.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Geo-Congress 2020: Engineering, Monitoring, and Management of Geotechnical Infrastructure (GSP 316)
Pages: 70 - 79
Editors: James P. Hambleton, Ph.D., Northwestern University, Roman Makhnenko, Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Aaron S. Budge, Ph.D., Minnesota State University, Mankato
ISBN (Online): 978-0-7844-8279-7
Copyright
© 2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Published online: Feb 21, 2020
ASCE Technical Topics:
- Analysis (by type)
- Design (by type)
- Engineering fundamentals
- Engineering materials (by type)
- Fiber reinforced polymer
- Foundations
- Geomaterials
- Geomechanics
- Geosynthetics
- Geotechnical engineering
- Load factors
- Load transfer
- Materials engineering
- Numerical analysis
- Pile foundations
- Piles
- Polymer
- Soil analysis
- Soil mechanics
- Soil properties
- Structural design
- Synthetic materials
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