Numerical Evaluation of Geosynthetic Reinforced Column Supported Embankments

Pile or column supported embankments have been increasingly employed to construct highway or railway embankments over soft soils. Piles or columns of stiffer material installed in the soft ground can provide the necessary support by transferring the embankment load to a firm stratum using a soil arching. However, there has been reported to occur a relatively large differential settlement between the piles and the untreated soils. Geosynthetic reinforced pile or column supported embankment (GRPS) is often used to minimize the differential settlement. Two dimensional finite element anlyses have been performed on both the column supported embankments and the geogrid reinforced column supported embankments by using a PLAXIS 2D to evaluate the soil arching effect. Based on the results obtained from finite element analyses, the stress reduction ratio decreases as the area replacement ratio increases in the column supported embankments. For the geogrid reinforced column supported embankments, the geogrid reinforcemnt can reduce differential settlements effectively. In additon, the use of stiffer geogrid is appeared to be more effective in reducing the differential settlements.