Predicting the long-term performance of a wide embankment on soft soil using an elastic-viscoplastic model
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2010
Abstract
This paper presents modelling of the consolidation of foundation soil under a wide embankment constructed over soft soil. An elastic-viscoplastic (EVP) constitutive model is used to represent the foundation soil for the coupled finite element analysis (FEA). A unit-cell analysis is carried out to capture the maximum settlement and the development of excess pore-water pressure with time below the centreline of the embankment for a long period (9 years). A new function for capturing the varying nature of the creep or secondary compression coefficient is proposed and used in association with the EVP model. The input material parameters for this study were determined from extensive laboratory experiments except for the equivalent horizontal permeability, which was systematically estimated by using vertical permeability data obtained from one-dimensional consolidation tests and by back-analysing the first 12 months of field settlement data. Comparisons are made among the predictions obtained adopting an elastoplastic modified Cam clay model and the EVP model with constant and varying creep coefficients for the foundation soil and the corresponding field data. The predictions with the EVP model are found to be better than those with the elastoplastic model and the use of a varying creep coefficient for the EVP model seems to further improve its predicting ability.
Keywords
Creep, Embankments, Soft clay, Time dependency, Viscoplasticity, Creep coefficient, Elastic viscoplastic, Elasto-plastic, Elasto-plastic models, Field data, Finite element analysis, Foundation soils, Laboratory experiments, Long term performance, Material parameter, Modified Cam-clay model, One dimensional consolidation, Pore-water pressures, Secondary compression, Settlement data, Soft clays, Soft soils, Unit cells, Vertical permeabilities, Canals, Capillarity, Constitutive models, Elastoplasticity, Forecasting, Hydraulic structures, Plasticity, Soils, Viscosity, Water analysis, Geologic models, consolidation, data acquisition, elastic property, embankment, finite element method, foundation, laboratory method, one-dimensional modeling, parameterization, permeability, porewater, pressure effect, soft soil, time dependent behavior
Divisions
fac_eng
Publication Title
Canadian Geotechnical Journal
Volume
47
Issue
2
Additional Information
554YJ Times Cited:6 Cited References Count:31