Case Studies of Reinforced Piled High-Speed Railway Embankment over Soft Soils

Abstract

Soil arching in the reinforced piled embankment is investigated in this paper on the basis of two case studies of high-speed railways constructed in the eastern coastal region of China. The majority of the overburden load was found to have been transferred from the soil to the pile because of soil arching in the piled embankment. In addition, the critical height was approximately 2.6–3.8 times the net pile spacing. The adapted Terzaghi method, the BS8006 method, the Hewlett and Randolph method, EBGEO, and a simplified analytical method used to analyze the reinforced piled embankment were discussed and verified by the two cases. It was found that the adapted Terzaghi method was consistent with the measurement for the stress reduction ratio, with an error of 2.0–38.0%. The simplified analytical method predicted the maximum geogrid strain with the error of 6.7–33.2%, and assessed the maximum settlement at the subsoil surface with an error of 4.4–51.0%.