Abstract
Piled embankments have been extensively used for high-speed rail over soft soils because of their effectiveness in minimizing differential settlement and shortening the construction period. Stress concentration ratio, defined as the ratio of vertical stress carried by pile heads (or pile caps if applicable) to that by adjacent soils, is a fundamental parameter in the design of piled embankments. In view of the complicated load transfer mechanism in the framework of embankment system, this paper presents a simplified analytical solution for the stress concentration ratio of rigid pile-supported embankments. In the derivation, the effects of cushion stiffness, pile–soil interaction, and pile penetration behavior are considered and examined. A modified linearly elastic-perfectly plastic model was used to analyze the mechanical response of a rigid pile–soil system. The analytical model was verified against field data and the results of numerical simulations from the literature. According to the proposed method, the skin friction distribution, pile–soil relative displacement, location of neural point, and differential settlement between the pile head (or cap) and adjacent soils can be determined. This work serves as a fast algorithm for initial and reasonable approximation of stress concentration ratio on the design aspects of piled embankments.
Highlights
High-speed railway network in China is the world’s longest and most extensively used—with a total length of 37,900 km by the end of 2020
Some fundamental factors may be overlooked in these models when evaluating the mechanical behavior of piled embankments
Some theoretical methods [8, 21,22,23] have been developed to analyze the pile–soil interaction below the Stress concentration ratio is taken as a fundamental parameter in design of piled embankments and is a key indicator of the deformation and bearing capacity of underlying reinforced foundation; few methods are available for reasonably estimating its value
Summary
High-speed railway network in China is the world’s longest and most extensively used—with a total length of 37,900 km by the end of 2020. Extensive investigations have been performed to elucidate the load transfer mechanism of piled embankments (e.g., [9,10,11]) for design purposes. Some fundamental factors may be overlooked in these models (e.g., cushion layer, geosynthetic reinforcement, and load transfer efficiency of pile–soil system) when evaluating the mechanical behavior of piled embankments. Stress concentration ratio is taken as a fundamental parameter in design of piled embankments and is a key indicator of the deformation and bearing capacity of underlying reinforced foundation; few methods are available for reasonably estimating its value. Combined with recent advances in elucidating the load transfer mechanism of piled embankments [25, 26], this paper presents a novel analytical solution for predicting the stress concentration ratio. The proposed method was verified against the results of numerical analysis and field measurements from two case histories
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