Designing bio-based geotextiles for reinforcing an embankment erected on the soft soil

Abstract

On erecting an embankment on the saturated soft clay soil, the properties of both embankment and foundation soil changes with time but the rate of which these changes occur, vary some insignificant but others are very important as they enhance the stability of an embankment with time. The need to predict what the properties and behaviour will be with time is based on what was initially known during the design time and at the end of construction. For the reinforced embankment on the soft ground, the time dependent behaviour of both reinforcement and soil and how they are interrelated represent much more complexity on solving slope stability problems. Emphasis in this paper is on how time factor changes the strength properties of reinforcement and foundation soil for both reinforced and unreinforced embankment constructed on the saturated soft clay soil. The proposed empirical equation has indicated that the amount of required geotextiles can be selected whenever the loss in strength of the geotextiles due to biodegradation corresponds to the reduction in the required stabilizing force.