Embankment on soft soil:

Embankment constructions are required for highways, railways etc. In many cases, these embankment
lengths are in the kilometers. Many times the foundation soil on which these embankments are being
constructed is found to be of soft consistency. It may undergo higher settlement (sometimes in meters),
it may not have sufficient bearing capacity, and it may have chances of differential settlements. In such
situations, construction of embankment becomes challenging aspect.
With advances in geotechnical engineering, the use of geosynthetic products is increasing for many
projects including highways, railways etc for various functions such as separation, filtration, drainage,
reinforcement, liquid barrier etc. While it comes to embankment on soft soil, the geosynthetics can
contribute in many important aspects as listed below:
(1) Increases rotational stability due to tensile strength of reinforcement.
(2) Due to load transfer mechanism, it spreads stresses on wider base; this reduces stresses at
foundation level.
(3) As the stresses are transferred through reinforcement base, the load transfer mechanism is more or
less uniform. This helps in reducing differential settlement.
(4) Since, stress transferred at the base are relatively lower, increased stress due to embankment
construction is relatively lower. This helps in up to some extent reducing total settlement.
(5) In many projects, where the embankment height is more, the construction is planned in many stages.
Since reinforcement increases rotational stability, relatively higher embankment height in single stage
can be constructed.
It is essential to note that basal reinforcement cannot prevent settlement completely but can help in
reducing differential settlement as well as total settlement.
What Methods are being used so far?
Different methods are being used for the analysis of embankment on soft soil. These Methods include
limit equilibrium method, plasticity solutions, finite element methods etc.
Why finite element method is preferred?
Methods such as limit equilibrium method and plasticity solutions dont provide any information on
strains or deformations at various points of the geometry and within the reinforcement of the
reinforced soil. Apart from this, the combined behaviour of foundation soil, reinforcement and
embankment, deformation and strains in all the three component of the system are slightly complex.
The study of these behaviour using full scale construction and monitoring of embankments are costly,
time consuming and in many cases impractical. The study of the same can be done using numerical
methods such as finite element method. Many researchers had used the same in the past for various
purposes and found it to be powerful for such problems.