{"title":"Soil arching evolution in GRPS embankments: Numerical spring-based trapdoor tests","authors":"Ling Zhang, Mengchao Deng, Jie Zhou, Zeyu Xu, Shuai Zhou, Yunhao Chen","doi":"10.1002/nag.3811","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>Soil arching is one of the main load transfer mechanisms of geosynthetic-reinforced and pile-supported (GRPS) embankments. This study established a numerical spring-based trapdoor model that can consider the coupling effect between embankment filling, horizontal geosynthetic, piles, and soft soil between piles by the discrete element method (DEM). The effects of multiple factors on the deformation pattern, load transfer, and the settlement at the top surface of GRPS embankments were analyzed, such as soft soil stiffness, geosynthetic stiffness, fill height, and pile clear spacing. The multiple spring-based trapdoor (MS-TD) model effectively replicated the actual deformation of soft soil between piles in engineering practice by elucidating the nonuniform settlement of the fill on the trapdoor. Although the geosynthetic indirectly reduces the load transferred to the pile top by weakening the soil arching, it can directly increase the load transferred to the pile top by the membrane effect, thereby increasing the total load transferred to the pile top. The effect of the geosynthetic on reducing settlement decreases with the increase of soft soil stiffness, and the displacement reduction ratio at the top surface remains unchanged when it exceeds a certain value. In addition, the shape of the soil arch evolves rather than unchanged during the growth of pile clear spacing.</p>","PeriodicalId":13786,"journal":{"name":"International Journal for Numerical and Analytical Methods in Geomechanics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.4000,"publicationDate":"2024-07-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"International Journal for Numerical and Analytical Methods in Geomechanics","FirstCategoryId":"5","ListUrlMain":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/nag.3811","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"ENGINEERING, GEOLOGICAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Soil arching is one of the main load transfer mechanisms of geosynthetic-reinforced and pile-supported (GRPS) embankments. This study established a numerical spring-based trapdoor model that can consider the coupling effect between embankment filling, horizontal geosynthetic, piles, and soft soil between piles by the discrete element method (DEM). The effects of multiple factors on the deformation pattern, load transfer, and the settlement at the top surface of GRPS embankments were analyzed, such as soft soil stiffness, geosynthetic stiffness, fill height, and pile clear spacing. The multiple spring-based trapdoor (MS-TD) model effectively replicated the actual deformation of soft soil between piles in engineering practice by elucidating the nonuniform settlement of the fill on the trapdoor. Although the geosynthetic indirectly reduces the load transferred to the pile top by weakening the soil arching, it can directly increase the load transferred to the pile top by the membrane effect, thereby increasing the total load transferred to the pile top. The effect of the geosynthetic on reducing settlement decreases with the increase of soft soil stiffness, and the displacement reduction ratio at the top surface remains unchanged when it exceeds a certain value. In addition, the shape of the soil arch evolves rather than unchanged during the growth of pile clear spacing.
期刊介绍:
The journal welcomes manuscripts that substantially contribute to the understanding of the complex mechanical behaviour of geomaterials (soils, rocks, concrete, ice, snow, and powders), through innovative experimental techniques, and/or through the development of novel numerical or hybrid experimental/numerical modelling concepts in geomechanics. Topics of interest include instabilities and localization, interface and surface phenomena, fracture and failure, multi-physics and other time-dependent phenomena, micromechanics and multi-scale methods, and inverse analysis and stochastic methods. Papers related to energy and environmental issues are particularly welcome. The illustration of the proposed methods and techniques to engineering problems is encouraged. However, manuscripts dealing with applications of existing methods, or proposing incremental improvements to existing methods – in particular marginal extensions of existing analytical solutions or numerical methods – will not be considered for review.