Lateral earth pressure of granular backfills on retaining walls with expanded polystyrene geofoam inclusions under limited surcharge loading

Existing studies have focused on the behavior of the retaining wall equipped with expanded polystyrene(EPS)geofoam inclusions under semi-infinite surcharge loading rather than limited surcharge loading.In this paper,the failure mode and the earth pressure acting on the rigid retaining wall with EPS geofoam inclusions and granular backfills(henceforth referred to as EPS-wall),under limited surcharge loading are investigated through two-and three-dimensional model tests.The testing results show that different from the sliding of almost all the backfill in the EPS-wall under semi-infinite surcharge loading,only an approximately triangular backfill slides in the wall under limited surcharge loading.The distribution of the lateral earth pressure on the EPS-wall under limited surcharge loading is non-linear,and the distribution changes from the increase of the wall depth to the decrease with the increase of the limited surcharge loading.An approach based on the force equilibrium of a differential element is developed to predict the lateral earth pressure behind the EPS-wall subjected to limited surcharge loading,and its performance was fully validated by the three-dimensional model tests.

Effect of surcharge loading on horseshoe-shaped tunnels excavated in saturated soft rocks

Underground facilities are usually constructed under existing buildings,or buildings are constructed over existing underground structures.It is then imperative to account for the current overburden loads and future surface loadings in the design of tunnels.In addition,tunnels are often constructed beneath the groundwater level,such as cross-river tunnels.Therefore,it is also important to consider the water pressure impact on the tunnel lining behaviour.Tunnels excavated by a conventional tunnelling method are considered in this paper.The hyperstatic reaction method(HRM)is adopted in this study to investigate the effect of surcharge loading on a horseshoe-shaped tunnel behaviour excavated in saturated soft rocks.The results obtained from the HRM and numerical modelling are in good agreement.Parametric studies were then performed to show the effects of the water pressure,surcharge loading value and its width,and groundwater level on the behaviour of the horseshoe-shaped tunnel lining,in terms of internal forces and displacements.It displays that the bending moment,normal forces and radial displacements are more sensitive to the water pressure,surcharge loading and groundwater level.

Time-dependent deviation of bridge pile foundations caused by adjacent large-area surcharge loads in soft soils and its preventive measures

Time-dependent characteristics(TDCs)have been neglected in most previous studies investigating the deviation mechanisms of bridge pile foundations and evaluating the effectiveness of preventive measures.In this study,the stress-strain-time characteristics of soft soils were illustrated by consolidation-creep tests based on a typical engineering case.An extended Koppejan model was developed and then embedded in a finite element(FE)model via a user-material subroutine(UMAT).Based on the validated FE model,the time-dependent deformation mechanism of the pile foundation was revealed,and the preventive effect of applying micropiles and stress-release holes to control the deviation was investigated.The results show that the calculated maximum lateral displacement of the cap differs from the measured one by 6.5%,indicating that the derived extended Koppejan model reproduced the deviation process of the bridge cap-pile foundation with time.The additional load acting on the pile side caused by soil lateral deformation was mainly concentrated within the soft soil layer and increased with the increase in load duration.Compared with t=3 d(where t is surcharge time),the maximum lateral additional pressure acting on Pile 2#increased by approximately 47.0%at t=224 d.For bridge pile foundation deviation in deep soft soils,stress-release holes can provide better prevention compared to micropiles and are therefore recommended.

Finite element analysis of effect of soil displacement on bearing capacity of single friction pile

Effect of soil displacement on friction single pile in the cases of tunneling,surcharge load and uniform soil movement was discussed in details with finite element method.Lateral displacement of the pile caused by soil displacement reached about 90% of the total displacement,which means that P-Δ effect of axial load can be neglected.The maximum moment of pile decreased from 159 kN·m to 133 kN·m in the case of surcharge load when the axial load increased from 0 to the ultimate load.When deformation of pile caused by soil displacement is large,axial load applied on pile-head plays the role of reducing the maximum bending moment in concrete pile to some extent.When pile is on one side of the tunnel,soil displacements around the pile are all alike,which means that the soil pressures around the pile do not decrease during tunneling.Therefore,Q-s curve of the pile affected by tunneling is very close to that of pile in static loading test.Bearing capacities of piles influenced by surcharge load and uniform soil movement are 2480 kN and 2630 kN,respectively,which are a little greater than that of the pile in static loading test(2400 kN).Soil pressures along pile increase due to surcharge load and uniform soil movement,and so do the shaft resistances along pile,as a result,when rebars in concrete piles are enough,bearing capacity of pile affected by soil displacement increases compared with that of pile in static loading test.

Finite element analysis of couple effect of soil displacement and axial load on single inclined pile

The couple effect of soil displacement and axial load on the single inclined pile in cases of surcharge load and uniform soil movement is discussed in detail with the methods of full-scale field tests and finite element method. Parametric analyses including the degree of inclination and the distance between soil and pile are carried out herein. When the displacement of soil on the left side and right side of a pile is identical, deformation of a vertical pile and an inclined pile is highly close in both cases of surcharge load and uniform soil movement. When the couple effect of soil displacement and axial load occurs, settlement of an inclined pile is greater than that of a vertical pile under the same axial load, and bearing capacity of an inclined pile is smaller than that of a vertical pile. This is quite different from the case when the inclined pile is not affected by soil displacement. For inclined piles, P-Δ effect of axial load would lead to a large increase in bending moment, however, for the vertical pile, P-Δ effect of axial load can be neglected. Although the direction of inclination of piles is reverse, deformation of piles caused by uniform soil movement is totally the same. For the inclined piles discussed herein, bending moment(-8 m to-17 m under the ground) relies heavily on uniform soil movement and does not change during the process of applying axial load. When the thickness of soil is less than the pile length, the greater the thickness of soil, the larger the bending moment at lower part of the inclined pile. When the thickness of soil is larger than the pile length, bending moment at lower part of the inclined pile is zero.

Lateral displacement of soft ground under vacuum pressure and surcharge load

Surcharge load(e.g.embankment fill)will induce settlement and outward lateral displacement,while vacuum pressure will induce settlement and inward lateral displacement of a ground.Ideally,combination of surcharge load and vacuum pressure can reduce or minimize the lateral displacement.Laboratory large scale model(length:1.50 m,width:~0.62 m,height:0.85 m)tests and finite element analyses(FEA)were conducted to investigate the main influencing factors on lateral displacement of a soft clayey ground under the combination of vacuum pressure and surcharge load.For the conditions investigated,the results indicate that the outward lateral displacement increases with the increase of the ratio of surcharge load to vacuum pressure(RL)and the loading rate of the surcharge load(LR).Also,it is shown that for a given RL and LR condition,lateral displacement reduces with the increase of the initial undrained shear strength(Su)of the ground.To predict the lateral displacement of a ground under the combination of surcharge load and vacuum pressure,the loading conditions in terms of RL and LR,and Su value of the ground have to be considered.