Discrete element modelling of rockfill railway embankments

There is a need of reducing the uncertainty in traffic loading-induced settlements within railway embankments. A previously developed model for unbound stone-based materials has been implemented for modelling rockfill embankments. Particles were represented by simple breakable tetrahedral clumps of spheres with four asperities each. Both corner breakage and particle splitting were allowed. Embankments with heights between 2 and 10 m were generated by successive dumping and compaction of layers of clumps on top of each other, mimicking the construction of real embankments. Cyclic loading of the embankments representing railway traffic, for both breakable and unbreakable assemblies, was carried out. Results show that the mechanical response is marked by a substantial degree of uncertainty exacerbated by particle degradation, especially for intermediate to high embankments. An analysis of particle rotation showed that particle rearrangement mostly accumulates in the top layers, resulting in a lack of influence of embankment height on settlements. Breakage, even being of (very) limited magnitude, had a statistically significant effect. Good agreement with common geostatic theories predicting horizontal pressures was also observed. Regarding resilient response, linear stiffening with embankment height is observed with a minor influence of breakage. All in all, it is shown that the specific scale, boundary and stress conditions of embankments results in a behaviour deviating from that observed under triaxial conditions. Therefore, the key contribution is showing that it is possible to realistically model high rockfill embankments under a large number of loading cycles and furthermore including degradation, something not attempted to date. Graphic abstract