Numerical analysis of earth embankments in liquefiable soil and ground improvement mitigation

Abstract

The security and stability of soil structures is seriously affected by earthquake-induced liquefaction, and many earth embankments located in seismically active areas failed to meet the new seismic design code criteria, introduced following the 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku Earthquake. This paper proposes an appropriate in-situ countermeasure, and the seismic performance of the liquefaction mitigation method by grouting is numerically evaluated. The elastoplastic constitutive model of cyclic mobility (CM) model can present the cyclic shearing and liquefaction properties of cohesionless sand and cohesive clay in embankments, by considering stress-induced anisotropy, over-consolidation, and soil structure. A numerical investigation, based on the water-soil coupled finite element and finite difference (FE-FD) methods is conducted to explain the dynamic behavior of embankment in fully saturated sandy deposits, during an earthquake, and long-term post-consolidation in a consistent manner. Special emphasis is placed on the growth of excess pore water pressure (EPWP), acceleration response, and ground deformation (settlement and lateral spreading) in liquefiable soil during earthquake and post-earthquake consolidation (approximately 50 years). A comparative analysis demonstrates that the implemented countermeasure is effective in reducing co-seismic and post-seismic liquefaction-induced deformation, regardless of whether the top sandy layer on both sides of the embankment is completely liquified during the earthquake loading. However, there is local failure on the embankment slope instead of deep-seated failure in the embankment-soil system when grouting the saturated sandy layer, and appropriate countermeasures should be adopted to protect the slope. Furthermore, the ground strengthening effect is not apparent when the reinforcement thickness exceeds 6 m.