Abstract
Based on the nonlinear finite element method, the basic characters of road engineering reinforced with back berm are studied. It is found that there is no influence on maximal vertical settlement and distribution of vertical settlement in the scope of original embankment by back berm, only the vertical settlement of foundation under back berm enlarged by back berm. The lateral displacement of embankment could be reduced by back berm, which reduced further by width of back berm enlarged. The stability of embankment increased rapidly with the width of back berm enlarged. But when the width of back berm reach a critical value, the stability of embankment is no more increased with the width of back berm enlarged. In order to utilize land effectively, the width of back berm should not be bigger than the critical value. The critical value of width of back berm could be calculated with the corresponding parameters of road engineering. There is almost no influence on stability of embankment by gravity of back berm. It is suggested to fill the back berm by the soil with big cohesive strength and big internal friction angle.
Highlights
Stability and settlement are the key control problems of road engineering on soft soil foundation
Back berm could be used to enhance the stability of embankment if need (Zhang et al, 2007)
Such as Qian-zi-dang soft foundation of Jin-Yi road engineering, which has been designed as an extra bridge with length of 560 m originally, optimized as a bridge with length of 100 m and 460 m embankment with back berm later, which obtained good economic effects by reducing the engineering cost of 1500 ten thousand RMB (Zhang and Wu, 2004)
Summary
Stability and settlement are the key control problems of road engineering on soft soil foundation. Back berm is a method filling earth or stone at some scope near toe of embankment, which prevent the soil extruded at toe of embankment, characterized with easy construction, need no special construction machinery, short time of construction, low cost and obtain ray materials locally, always favored by engineers Such as Qian-zi-dang soft foundation of Jin-Yi road engineering, which has been designed as an extra bridge with length of 560 m originally, optimized as a bridge with length of 100 m and 460 m embankment with back berm later, which obtained good economic effects by reducing the engineering cost of 1500 ten thousand RMB (Zhang and Wu, 2004). Lots of researches indicated that it is reliably and feasibly to analyze stability of embankment with shear strength reduction of FEM (Liang and Liu, 2003; Dai et al, 2009)
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