Failures in transport infrastructure embankments

Briggs, Kevin; Loveridge, Fleur; Glendinning, S. G.

doi:10.1016/j.enggeo.2016.07.016

Cited by 76 publications

(47 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…These environmental cycles of wetting and drying cause cyclic volume change that 8 can lead to the accumulation of irrecoverable plastic strains resulting in mobilisation 9 of post-peak strength and progressive failure (Take, 2003;Take & Bolton, 2004;10 Take & Bolton, 2011). This mechanism of shallow first-time failure due to repeated 11 environmental stress cycles and progressive failure, known as seasonal ratcheting 12 (Take & Bolton, 2011), has been observed in high-plasticity clay rail infrastructure 13 slopes (Briggs, et al, 2017), and was shown conclusively through centrifuge 14 experimentation (Take & Bolton, 2011). The mechanism of seasonal ratcheting in 15 high-plasticity clay slopes is the focus of the study reported in this paper.…”

Section: List Of Notationmentioning

confidence: 84%

“…′ = Bishop's generalised effective stress (kPa) = total stress (kPa) = pore air pressure (kPa) = pore water pressure (kPa) χ = is a parameter considering the area over which matric suction acts = matric suction (kPa) = degree of saturation = saturation = residual saturation = van Genuchten fitting parameter (kPa -1 ) = van Genuchten fitting parameter = saturated hydraulic conductivity = relative hydraulic conductivity of water phase (m/s) = relative hydraulic conductivity of air phase (m/s) * = nonlocal plastic strain = weighted volume ′ = is the weighting function = local plastic strain = global coordinate ′ = local coordinate = internal length = distance from the stress point to adjacent stress points = bulk modulus (kPa) = shear modulus (kPa) = specific volume = gradient of the swelling line = gradient of normal consolidation line = reference pressure (kPa) = specific volume at reference pressure following the swelling line = original specific volume at reference pressure ′ = Poisson's ratio = void ratio , = vertical saturated hydraulic conductivity (m/s) ,ℎ = horizontal saturated hydraulic conductivity (m/s) = overconsolidation ratio Introduction 1 Long-term deterioration of high-plasticity clay slopes due to seasonal wetting and 2 drying induced pore water pressure fluctuations driving effective stress cycles, has 3 been attributed as the cause of shallow (i.e. less than 2.5m deep) first-time failures in 4 clay infrastructure slopes (Take & Bolton, 2011;Briggs, et al, 2017). Within this 5 study, pore water pressure fluctuations and resulting effective stress cycles due to 6 environmental boundary conditions are referred to as environmental stress cycles.…”

Section: List Of Notationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Modelling seasonal ratcheting and progressive failure in clay slopes: a validation

et al. 2020

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Seasonal wetting and drying stress cycles can lead to long-term deterioration of high-plasticity clay slopes through the accumulation of outward and downward deformations leading to plastic strain accumulation, progressive failure and first-time failures due to seasonal ratcheting. Using recent advances in hydro-mechanical coupling for the numerical modelling of unsaturated soil behaviour and development of nonlocal strain-softening regulatory models to reduce mesh dependency of localisation problems, the mechanism of seasonal ratcheting has been replicated within a numerical model. Hydrogeological and mechanical behaviours of the numerical model have been compared and validated against physical measurements of seasonal ratcheting from centrifuge experimentation. Following validation, the mechanism of seasonal ratcheting was explored in a parametric study investigating the role of stiffness and long-term behaviour of repeated stress cycling extrapolated to failure. Material stiffness has a controlling influence on the rate of strength deterioration for these slopes; the stiffer the material, the smaller the seasonal movement and therefore the more gradual the accumulation of irrecoverable strains and material softening. The validation presented provides confidence that the numerical modelling approach developed can capture near-surface behaviour of high-plasticity overconsolidated clay slopes subject to cyclic wetting and drying. The approach provides a tool to further investigate the effects of weather driven stress cycles and the implication of climate change on high-plasticity clay infrastructure slopes.

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Section: List Of Notationmentioning

confidence: 84%

Section: List Of Notationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modelling seasonal ratcheting and progressive failure in clay slopes: a validation

et al. 2020

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“…This information obtained from instrumentation may be vital in understanding deterioration and modes of failure (of which there may be many); this information can feed back into improved conceptual and numerical models that seek to identify assets that may be at risk. In some geologies and environments, deterioration mechanisms are complex, and there is considerable progress still to be made in working out how to monitor these and incorporate them in models (Dijkstra & Dixon 2010;Springman et al 2012;Briggs et al 2017).…”

Section: Received 23 August 2016; Accepted 4 May 2017mentioning

confidence: 99%

Current and future role of instrumentation and monitoring in the performance of transport infrastructure slopes

Smethurst

Smith

Uhlemann

et al. 2017

QJEGH

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Instrumentation is often used to monitor the performance of engineered infrastructure slopes. This paper looks at the current role of instrumentation and monitoring, including the reasons for monitoring infrastructure slopes, the instrumentation typically installed and parameters measured. The paper then investigates recent developments in technology and considers how these may change the way that monitoring is used in the future, and tries to summarize the barriers and challenges to greater use of instrumentation in slope engineering. The challenges relate to economics of instrumentation within a wider risk management system, a better understanding of the way in which slopes perform and/or lose performance, and the complexities of managing and making decisions from greater quantities of data.

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“…1. Deep-seated failures typically occur due to weak foundation soils or after long periods of heavy rainfall, whereas shallow failures commonly occur due to short periods of intense rainfall [7,8]. The type of failure can be governed by pavement thickness, soil initial condition (embankment and subgrade) and the type of loading applied on the road pavement.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Driving forces include; external loading from recurring traffic loading and geohazards from rainfall, erosion and earthquakes. Such embankment failures can be identified as a slope failure which can either occur through the embankment as shallow slope failure or deep-seated slope failure [6,7], as showed in Fig. 1.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stability assessment of enzyme stabilized road embankments

et al. 2017

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Abstract:Road infrastructure is one of the most important factors for a country's development. The vital role that they play in the present economy is reflected in many kilometres of roads worldwide. The external loads due to recurring traffic loads and geohazards can result in road failures with consequences in terms of economic loss to asset managers, public safety and vehicle damage. Due to such adverse effects of road failures, soil stabilization is being widely used as a preventive measure of road failures since recently. However, the assessment (or design) of stabilized road embankments using current standards assume linear material response and two-dimensional geometric idealization. Such assumptions can lead to non-conservative results, leading the road embankments to fail in long-term mainly due to improper assessments in the designs. The current research investigates the assessment of enzyme based stabilized road embankments under external traffic loads using threedimensional (3-D) finite element (FE) analysis. Firstly, laboratory tests were conducted to characterize the soil/stabilized soil and to calibrate the numerical models. Then, a series of FE analyses were conducted to investigate the performance of stabilized road embankments under external traffic loads. Results showed that the prediction of required pavement thicknesses using elasto-plastic 3-D modelling could be substantially different in comparison to the results obtained from available standard pavement design tools and 2-D idealization of pavement modelling. The study revealed the importance of considering realistic material performance and load applications during the assessment of pavement design in order to maximize the benefits of enzyme stabilization that can be effective in prevention of the road embankment failures.

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Failures in transport infrastructure embankments

Cited by 76 publications

References 44 publications

Modelling seasonal ratcheting and progressive failure in clay slopes: a validation

Modelling seasonal ratcheting and progressive failure in clay slopes: a validation

Current and future role of instrumentation and monitoring in the performance of transport infrastructure slopes

Stability assessment of enzyme stabilized road embankments

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