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Performance of A Test Embankment Constructed On An Organic Clayey Silt Deposit

The document describes an experiment on a test embankment constructed on an organic clayey silt deposit in Canada. Sensors were installed to monitor excess pore pressures, ground movements, and stresses during construction in stages up to failure. Key findings were that pore pressures dissipated during early stages, horizontal displacements were small and elastic up to 3.4m fill thickness, and failure occurred gradually and was visco-plastic in nature. The maximum stable embankment height was found to be substantially less than predicted by conventional limit equilibrium calculations.

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GurtejSinghChana
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55 views

Performance of A Test Embankment Constructed On An Organic Clayey Silt Deposit

The document describes an experiment on a test embankment constructed on an organic clayey silt deposit in Canada. Sensors were installed to monitor excess pore pressures, ground movements, and stresses during construction in stages up to failure. Key findings were that pore pressures dissipated during early stages, horizontal displacements were small and elastic up to 3.4m fill thickness, and failure occurred gradually and was visco-plastic in nature. The maximum stable embankment height was found to be substantially less than predicted by conventional limit equilibrium calculations.

Uploaded by

GurtejSinghChana
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Question 1

Performance of a test embankment constructed on an organic clayey


silt deposit
In many parts of Canada, a large number of soft compressible organic clayey deposits are
found, which influence various construction projects due to their uncertain poor engineering
properties. Many researchers have provided their semi empirical or experimental correlation to
predict the properties of these organic deposits. For verifying these correlations, author had
conducted an experiment on the unreinforced section of test embankment at Sackville, N.B.,
Canada. The objective of this experiment on embankment was to provide a case record of
deformation and progressive failure for unreinforced embankment sections constructed on a soft
compressible organic clayey silt.

Construction of the embankment was performed in four stages. During the first, second, and
third stages, the thickness of fill in the embankment was increased to 1.3, 2.25, and 3.4 m,
respectively. In the last stage of construction, it was rapidly built to failure over a 3- day period.
To monitor the development of excess pore pressures in the foundation subsoil, a total of ten
pneumatic piezometers were installed, four heave plates, four settlement plates, and three
augers at different depths were installed on the main part of the unreinforced embankment to
monitor the movement of the specific points on the ground surface and the foundation soil.
Another set of three augers at different depths, two settlement plates, and three heave plates
were installed on the berm) side of the embankment. Lateral displacement of the foundation
subsoil was monitored with three vertical inclinometers that were installed close to the toe of the
embankment. Inclinometer casings were installed up to a depth of about 10 m, where a stratum
of stiff clayey silt was encountered. A pneumatic total pressure cell was installed close to the
centerline of the unreinforced section to measure the pressure imposed by the fill on the
foundation subsoil.

Following are some of the key findings of the experiment, which are relevant to the practicing
Engineers:

 The total pressure cell readings were found to be reasonably consistent and in close
agreement with the pressures calculated based on thickness and unit weight of the fill,
which signifies that stresses beneath the embankment can be calculated by the
conventional formulas. There is not any need to modify these formulas.
 Dissipation of excess pore pressure has been reported during the early stages of
construction for the Sackville embankment. Literature also governs a similar kind of relation.
Therefore, various ground improvement techniques like stage construction, pre- loading can
be very helpful in dissipating excess pore pressure in the deposit in early stages of
construction.
 The results of all three inclinometers indicated very similar, small (less than 0.06 m),
horizontal displacement responses up to 3.4 m thickness. This reflects an essentially elastic
response of the foundation soil up to at least 3.4 m fill thickness. The horizontal
displacement profiles indicate the initiation of a failure zone at a depth of about 3.5 m and
horizontal displacement of .24 m occurs, when net thickness of embankment became 5 m.
The results of settlement plates also confirmed that the settlement were less than 0.25 m
and elastic in nature up to 3.4 m. Therefore, the maximum net height of embankment, that
can be constructed on organic clayey deposits is up to 5 m and smaller than the height as
governed by the literature.

 The failure of embankment occurs quite gradually. Therefore, the failure type for this kind of
sol is visco-plastic type, as no classical-type abrupt failure was encountered during the
construction of this embankment.

 The height to which the embankment could be constructed is substantially less than what
would be expected based on a conventional 2D limit equilibrium calculation using
conventional vane strength data.

Question 2:

Parameters value units


Point load, P 5 KN
Moment, M 10 KN/m
Moment of inertia, I 0.00635 m4
Modulus of elasticity, E 30000000 KN/m2
Modulus of foundation, k 180 KN/m2/m
Beam length, x 20 m
Chractoristic of system, α 0.123973649
x f m αf αm D(αf) C(αm) V(x) Y(x)
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1 1 1 0.123973649 0.123974 0.000318 0.007685 -2.4E-06 -1.2E-11
2 2 2 0.247947298 0.247947 0.00254 0.030738 -9.5E-06 -5E-11
3 3 3 0.371920946 0.371921 0.008574 0.069148 -2.1E-05 -1.1E-10
4 4 4 0.495894595 0.495895 0.020319 0.122873 -3.8E-05 -2E-10
5 5 5 0.619868244 0.619868 0.039668 0.191803 -5.9E-05 -3.1E-10
6 6 6 0.743841893 0.743842 0.068495 0.27571 0.349768 1.84E-06
7 7 7 0.867815541 0.867816 0.108632 0.37418 41.60483 0.000218
8 8 8 0.99178919 0.991789 0.161846 0.48654 108.1394 0.000568
9 9 9 1.115762839 1.115763 0.2298 0.611757 204.9858 0.001076
10 10 10 1.239736488 1.239736 0.314 0.748341 337.0695 0.001769
11 11 11 1.363710136 1.36371 0.415734 0.894218 509.1167 0.002673
12 12 12 1.487683785 1.487684 0.53599 1.046608 725.5289 0.003809
13 13 13 1.611657434 1.611657 0.675358 1.201884 990.2194 0.005198
14 14 14 1.735631083 1.735631 0.833924 1.35543 1306.408 0.006858
15 15 15 1.859604731 1.859605 1.011126 1.501493 1676.373 0.0088
16 16 16 1.98357838 1.983578 1.205617 1.633044 2101.145 0.01103
17 17 17 2.107552029 2.107552 1.415088 1.741634 2580.168 0.013544
18 18 18 2.231525678 2.231526 1.636091 1.817276 3110.887 0.01633
19 19 19 2.355499326 2.355499 1.863837 1.848343 3688.305 0.019361
20 20 20 2.479472975 2.479473 2.091992 1.821498 4304.474 0.022596
SETTLEMENT PROFILE

0.025
SETTLEMENT, Y(X)

0
0 5 10 15 20 25

BEAM LENGTH, X

-0.025
Numerical model is developed in the Geostudio with the help of Slope W function. As slope of
embankment provided as 4:1 and unit weight of fill is assumed as 22 KN/ m3 .

Figure 1: figure showing the embankment slope and FOS after analysis in Geostudio

Figure 2: figure showing the stresses induced in the soil


Figure 3: Figure demonstrating final settlement in the clay deposit

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