A large-scale test of reinforced soil railway embankment with soilbag facing under dynamic loading

Abstract

Geosynthetic reinforced soil retaining walls can be employed as railway embankments to carry large static and dynamic train loads, but very few studies can be found in the literature that investigate their dynamic behavior under simulated wheel loading. A large-scale dynamic test on a reinforced soil railway embankment was therefore carried out. The model embankment was 1.65 meter high and designed to have a soilbag facing. It was reinforced with HDPE geogrid layers at a vertical spacing of 0.3 m and a length of 2 m. The dynamic test consisted of 1.2 million cycles of harmonic dynamic loading with three different load levels and four different exciting frequencies. Before the dynamic loading test, a static test was also carried out to understand the general behavior of the embankment behavior. The study indicated the importance of loading frequency on the dynamic response of reinforced soil railway embankment. It also showed that toe resistance played a significant role in the dynamic behavior of the embankment. Some limitations of the test were also discussed.