A NUMERICAL STUDY OF REINFORCED EMBANKMENTS-SUPPORTED BY ENCASED FLOATING COLUMNS

Abstract

This paper presents a three-dimensional, finite-element, parametric study of a base-reinforced embankment supported by encased floating columns on soft soil. A 3D numerical model is made to study the effects of geogrid basal reinforcement and geotextile encasement on the displacement behavior of the columns. The numerical model was initially verified using measured data from a real case study. Then, parametric studies were subsequently performed, considering the effect of the encasement stiffness, the basal reinforcement stiffness and the embankment fill height, together with an examination of the effective length of the encasement. The results from this parametric study are presented here in the form of comparative graphs. The objective of this paper is to present the behavior of the embankment on floating encased columns after the soft soil consolidation for different embankment heights, basal reinforcement and column-encasement stiffnesses.