Embankments on Soft Clay

Soft clay soils are found in different locations in Egypt. It is the kind of soil which has a
low bearing capacity and large settlements that takes place for long periods of time.
Embankments are very often built on this kind of soil, so it was important to find the best
methods to treat this soft clay to get rid of this large amount of settlement that causes
malfunction of the roadways built on them or even total failure of the embankment by
slope stability failure. This thesis is concerned with studying some methods for
improving soft clay soils, such as using sand drains, piles, geotextiles, etc. Finite element
method was utilized for numerically analyzing the effect of each method on the stability
of the embankment as well as the reduction of the total settlement of the embankment.
Two types of embankments have been examined. A new constructed embankment over a
layer of soft clay was first analyzed in order to examine the effect of different
improvement techniques on the stability of these types of embankments. After having a
good insight of the effect of the improvement techniques, the second type of
embankments was examined. These include an existing embankment which was already
constructed on soft clay and there is a need for increasing the stability of such
embankment utilizing different improvement techniques. Comparisons are made between
these methods to show the advantages and disadvantages of each method. Many
important conclusions were obtained from this study, which have great effects on
reducing the total settlement and increasing the stability of the embankment.