See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/324452855

Investigating the Effect of Geogrid on Stabilization of High Railway

Embankments

Article  in  Soils and Foundations -Tokyo- · April 2018

DOI: 10.1016/j.sandf.2018.02.005

CITATIONS READS

7 405

4 authors, including:

Morteza Esmaeili Alireza Khodaverdian

Iran University of Science and Technology,Tehran,Iran Amirkabir University of Technology
152 PUBLICATIONS   660 CITATIONS    3 PUBLICATIONS   19 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

Feasibility Study on Utilization of Steel Slag Ballast Instead of the Common Stone Ballast in Ballasted Railway Track View project

Train - Track Interaction View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Alireza Khodaverdian on 15 April 2018.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

HOSTED BY Available online at www.sciencedirect.com

ScienceDirect
Soils and Foundations xxx (2018) xxx–xxx
www.elsevier.com/locate/sandf

Investigating the effect of geogrid on stabilization of high

railway embankments
Morteza Esmaeili ⇑, Behnood Naderi, Hossein Kalantar Neyestanaki, Alireza Khodaverdian
School of Railway Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran

Received 18 February 2017; received in revised form 20 October 2017; accepted 2 December 2017

Abstract

This paper investigates the effect of geogrid on controlling the stability and settlement of high railway embankments using laboratory
testing and finite element modeling. To do this, five series of embankments with 50 cm height were constructed, at a scale of 1:20 and then
were uniformly loaded on the crest in a loading chamber in dimensions of 240
235
220 cm. In this regard, the embankments of the
first series were constructed without geogrid reinforcing layers. Following to preliminary numerical simulations for determining the
appropriate level of geogrid layers installation, the second to fifth series of embankments were constructed. These embankments were
reinforced with one to four layers of geogrid respectively and finally, the results of their load in terms of settlements were compared.
In these studies, the reinforced embankments with a single geogrid layer had 7.14% raise in bearing capacity and 11.24% reduction in
settlement respectively, in comparison with the unreinforced embankment. The obtained results for the third to fifth series of embank-
ments were respectively in order of (19, 36.14), (26.3, 52.8) and (28.9, 53.42)%. In the next stage, by modeling the embankments in the
PLAXIS 2D software, the results were validated by the values obtained through laboratory models. In continuation of the study, real
embankments with heights of 5, 10, 15, and 20 m were simulated and placed under LM71 loading pattern (Eurocode, 2003). In this
respect, the impact of important effective parameters such as number of geogrid layer, soil characteristics, embankment dimensions,
interface coefficient between soil and geogrid and tensile strength of geogrid on bearing capacity and settlement have been studied.
The numerical results like the experimental ones, confirmed the increase in bearing capacity and settlement diminishing with definite
increase in the geogrid layers, so that more geogrid layers do not affect these parameters. With respect to improving the soil character-
istics and reducing the height of embankments, the FEM models showed decreasing effect of geogrid tensile strength on embankment
crest settlement. On the other side, the value of geogrid-soil interface coefficient has minor effect on both settlement and sliding safety
factor.
Ó 2018 Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of The Japanese Geotechnical Society.

Keywords: Settlement reduction; Embankment stability control; High railway embankments; Geogrid layer; Laboratory model; Finite element simulation

1. Introduction embarked on shortening the routes length and travel time.

This has made them to pass the railways through areas
Concurrent with the development of railway transporta- with many difficulties, and consequently, construction of
tion network during the recent years, the designers have technical infrastructures such as high embankments or
bridges has become inevitable. From a geotechnical point
of view, controlling the stability and settlement of high
Peer review under responsibility of The Japanese Geotechnical Society. embankments under operational loads or in special loading
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: [email protected] (M. Esmaeili), behnoodnx@
conditions, e.g. earthquake, is always a challenging issue
gmail.com (B. Naderi), [email protected] (H.K. Neyestanaki), for railway tracks designers. A review on the technical lit-
[email protected] (A. Khodaverdian). erature suggests various methods such as application of

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sandf.2018.02.005
0038-0806/Ó 2018 Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of The Japanese Geotechnical Society.

Please cite this article in press as: Esmaeili, M. et al., Investigating the effect of geogrid on stabilization of high railway embankments, Soils Found.
(2018), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sandf.2018.02.005
2 M. Esmaeili et al. / Soils and Foundations xxx (2018) xxx–xxx

Nomenclature

u distance of topmost layer from the loading bed CC curvature coefficient (dimensionless)
(m) q uniform loading on the embankment crest
4
Qvk

B load width (m) ¼ ð3aþ2b kN
Þ
B m2
h distance between geogrid layers (m) Qvk concentrated load of train (kN)
b width of geogrid layers (m) a&b geometrical parameter equal to 1.6 and 0.8
N number of geogrid layers respectively (m)
D loading distance from edge of slope (m) a Impact factor = a ¼ 1 þ 5:21 VR (dimensionless)
b slope angle from the horizon (°) V train speed (km/h)
CU uniformity coefficient of Soil (dimensionless) R diameter of train wheel (mm)

pile, micropile, deep soil mixing, berm construction on the the development of the numerical model of the embank-
sides of the embankment, injection, tieback installation, ments in PLAXIS 2D software, the results were then vali-
etc., for stabilization of the embankments, enhancement dated by the laboratory results. In the next stage, using
of bearing capacity and reduction of settlement. Some of validated numerical models, the behavior of 5, 10, 15,
these methods have been mentioned in the UIC Code and 20 m reinforced embankments by the geogrid under
719R (1994) under ‘‘Earthworks and Track-bed Layers actual railway load was studied. In the final stage, a series
for Railway Lines”. Among the research papers on the of sensitivity analyses on the effective parameters such as
mechanical stabilization of railway embankments, the the number of geogrid layer, soil characteristics, embank-
experimental and numerical study of micropiles to rein- ment dimensions, interface coefficient between soil and
force high railway embankments by Esmaeili et al. (2013) geogrid and tensile strength of geogrid were performed
and railway embankments stabilization by tied back-to- and their effect on the results of numerical models were
back system by Esmaeili and Arbabi (2015) are of particu- investigated.
lar merit.
During the recent years, with the development of
2. Literature survey
geosynthetics, they have been abundantly used in road
and railway projects. The majority of the projects deal with
In all research work, which have been carried out in the
the placement of reinforcing geosynthetics layers in super-
field of slope stabilization of slope with geogrid, various
structure layers of roads and railways. In this matter, and
factors play important role. Amongst, the normalized dis-
particularly regarding the reinforcement of railway sub-
tance (u/B) of topmost layer from the loading bed, normal-
structures, the published technical reports by Coleman
ized distance (h/B) between the layers, normalized width
(1990), Webster (1991), Helstrom et al. (2007), Penman
(b/B) of the layers and number (N) of the geogrid layers,
and Priest (2009), Lee et al. (2012), and Parsons et al.
normalized loading distance (D/B) from the edge of the
(2012) are noteworthy.
slope as well as the slope angle (b) from the horizon can
The main objective of this research is recognizing the
be pointed out. It should be noted that in the above cases,
performance mechanism of reinforcing layers of geogrid
B is the width of the loading area. The mentioned param-
materials in high railway embankments. In this regard,
eters are depicted in Fig. 1.
the focus of study is sliding control in embankment body
Yoo (2001) allocated his research to the investigation of
and decreasing the crest settlement as main effecting factors
bearing capacity of a strip foundation on a geogrid-
in railway embankment serviceability. According to the
reinforced slope. In his research an extensive range of con-
requirements of the UIC Code 719R, poor graded sand
material (QS2) for subgrade and well graded sand (QS3)
for embankment were adopted in five series of embank-
ments, each of which had 50 cm height and were in scale
of 1:20 with side slopes of 1:1 in loading chamber of 240

235
220 cm in conjunction with 60 cm of substructure,
all uniformly loaded on crest. All reinforced laboratory
models were made based on the results of the preliminary
numerical modeling to gain optimal level for placing the
geogrid layers. To that end, first series of embankments
were constructed without geogrid reinforcement and the
series second to fifth were reinforced with one to four geo-
grid layers each. Having finished the laboratory tests, with
Fig. 1. One way slope reinforced with geogrid layers.

Please cite this article in press as: Esmaeili, M. et al., Investigating the effect of geogrid on stabilization of high railway embankments, Soils Found.
(2018), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sandf.2018.02.005
View publication stats