Abstract
In order to evaluate the traffic‐load‐induced cumulative deformation of road high liquid limit subgrade soil, a series of laboratory tests are performed to determine the physical and mechanical properties of high liquid limit soil. A cumulative deformation model is then developed with consideration of the effects of dynamic deviator stress, the number of repeated loadings, and the material properties of subgrade soil. Based on Lu’s vehicle‐road‐ground coupling model, the traffic‐load‐induced stress, which is very important in predicting cumulative settlement of the subgrade, is calculated explicitly. The layerwise summation method is used to evaluate the traffic‐load‐induced cumulative deformation. Moreover, a parametric study is conducted using numerical computation and the results show that the traffic‐load‐induced cumulative deformation is mainly generated from the shallow soil, and the additional dynamic load plays an important role in analyzing the traffic‐load‐induced settlement.
Highlights
With the rapid development of high-speed traffic in China, many engineering problems about high liquid limit soils are sprouting out, which provides great developmental momentum and severe challenges for the further study of high liquid limit soil or its related engineering
For a road subgrade compacted by high liquid limit soils, the cumulative plastic deformation of the subgrade due to vehicle traffic load is one of the important factors that control the long-term service life as well as the maintenance cost of the road. erefore, it is essential to predict the traffic-load-induced cumulative deformation so as to carry traffic safely, conveniently, and economically during its entire lifespan
By introducing different elastoplastic material models, several researchers developed numerical methods such as the finite element method (FEM) [13, 14], the moving element method (MEM) [15], the Advances in Civil Engineering boundary element method (BEM) [16], and the FEM/BEM hybrid scheme [17, 18] to study the deformation behavior of subgrade soils subjected to cyclic loads. eoretically, explicit simulation is preferable
Summary
With the rapid development of high-speed traffic in China, many engineering problems about high liquid limit soils are sprouting out, which provides great developmental momentum and severe challenges for the further study of high liquid limit soil or its related engineering. Some scholars carried out research on the subgrade soil cumulative deformation caused by repeated loading based on experiments [6,7,8,9,10,11,12], which make it possible to derive empirical relationships of cumulative deformation with the number of applied load cycles. This method is simple, the dynamic characteristics of soils are not taken into consideration, and the traffic-load-induced stress is not calculated explicitly. In case of an uneven pavement, a more realistic vehicle-road-ground coupling model proposed by Lu et al [19] is employed to calculate the trafficload-induced dynamic deviator stress in subgrades. e layerwise summation method is used to evaluate the trafficload-induced cumulative deformation, and a parametric study is conducted to consider the influences of types of loads and the different depths on the cumulative deformation using numerical computation
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