Numerical Modelling on Settlement Influence of Highway Embankment on Adjacent Ground

Excessive settlement and foundation instability are the main problems commonly encountered in the construction of road embankments on soft soils. The settlements for not only the ground under the embankment but also the ground adjacent to the embankment have to be evaluated and ensured in the allowable range. In this study, settlement influence by a road embankment on the adjacent ground was investigated numerically through a FEM software of Plaxis. Then different ground improvement techniques were applied as a countermeasure to reduce the settlement on the adjacent ground such as Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) geofoam, geogrids, pile wall. Numerical analysis was carried out to validate the effectiveness of the countermeasure. In the analyses, the hardening soil model (HS) was used to model the grounds and EPS Geofoam also. The settlement of the embankment on the adjacent ground was observed and the factor of safety against slope failure was calculated for different embankment materials. The analyzed results indicated that the methods using EPS geofoam and pile wall are effective solutions to reduce the settlement influence of an embankment on the adjacent ground. © 2023 American Institute of Physics Inc.. All rights reserved.