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Undrained Stability Analysis of Embankment on Ordinary and Encased-Granular Columns in Soft Clay

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A Correction to this article was published on 26 October 2023

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Abstract

In this study, undrained behavior of a road embankment overlying ordinary and geosynthetic-encased granular columns is evaluated through fully coupled nonlinear stress analysis. In this contribution, the equivalent area methodology is used to convert the strengthened zone into an equivalent area including soft soil and granular columns. Diameter and internal friction angle of granular columns, undrained shear strength of soft soil, encasement stiffness, and encasement length are all varied aiming to compare the performance of embankment in undrained condition. Results show that enlarging columns size from 0.6 to 1.2 m reduces total deformations to half. However, this improvement can be 30% enhanced as granular columns are fully encased. Also, the computed failure mode alters from deep-seated to surficial failure surface as column size, internal friction angle of column filling material, and encasement stiffness increase. Unlike encased columns, embankment on ordinary granular columns in soft soil with threshold cu value of 11.5 kPa fails due to lack of sufficient lateral support from very soft soil. In addition, encasement stiffness is found to be the most critical factor affecting deformations and stability of embankment, among others.

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Data Availability

All the data, codes, and results presented in the paper are available upon request from the corresponding author.

Change history

Abbreviations

\(\gamma\) (kN/m3):

Soil unit weight

\({\gamma }_{\mathrm{eq}}\) (kN/m3):

Equivalent unit weight

\({\upphi }{\prime}\)(o):

Drained internal angle of friction

\({\upphi }_{\mathrm{eq}}\)(o):

Equivalent internal angle of friction

c' (kPa):

Drained cohesion

cu (kPa):

Clay undrained cohesion

ceq (kPa):

Equivalent cohesion

ca (-):

Apparent cohesion

E' (kPa):

Drained elastic modulus

Eeq (kPa):

Equivalent elastic modulus

\(\upupsilon\) (-):

Poisson’s ratio

\({\upupsilon }_{\mathrm{eq}}\) (-):

Equivalent Poisson’s ratio

Kp (-):

Coefficient of passive earth pressure

\({\upvarepsilon }_{\mathrm{a}}\) (-):

Column axial strain

H (m):

Thickness

ar (%):

Area replacement ratio

S (m):

Columns spacing

dc (cm):

Column diameter

J (kN/m):

Encasement stiffness

Lc (m):

Column length

Le (m):

Encasement length

OSC:

Ordinary stone column

GEC:

Geosynthetic-encased stone column

LEM:

Limit equilibrium method

FEM:

Finite element method

FDM:

Finite difference method

SF:

Safety factor

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Civil Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, University of Guilan, Persian Gulf Highway, Rasht, P.B: 41996-13776, Guilan, Iran

    Iman Hosseinpour & Saeed Ebrahimzade

  2. Civil Engineering Department, Faculty of Technology and Engineering (Eastern Guilan), University of Guilan, Rudsar, P.B. 44918-98566, Guilan, Iran

    Reza Rezvani

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  1. Iman Hosseinpour
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Hosseinpour, I., Rezvani, R. & Ebrahimzade, S. Undrained Stability Analysis of Embankment on Ordinary and Encased-Granular Columns in Soft Clay. Transp. Infrastruct. Geotech. (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40515-023-00339-6

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