Modelling of fine soils railway embankments behaviour under real cyclic loads

Mohammedia School of Engineering (E.M.I) – Mohammed V University in Rabat – Morocco

Abstract

Before the development of regulations, standards and guides for infrastructure building, embankments were generally constructed, by reusing and compacting the excavation materials. Therefore, a large part of existing railway embankments, over the world, is composed of fine compacted soils such as clay or marl. However, the current international trend of the railway undertakings and transport contractors is within the intensification of traffic, and the increase of train’s load and speed. Therefore, infrastructure managers are always called upon to evaluate the bearing capacity of existing infrastructures and define the necessary reinforcement solutions. In this perspective, a better awareness and knowledge of the behaviour of fine soils railway embankments is required to define optimal and efficient reinforcement solutions. In that matter, the article will feature the results of finite elements modelling of instrumented railway embankments that were constructed in Morocco in 1920, with marl compacted soil. The model is based on real applied loads and hydraulic conditions monitored for the last three years, which allow to simulate the hydro-mechanical behaviour of the embankment for this period. The article will be also comparing real monitored deformations recorded by the inclinometers equipping the embankments, with the output of the model using different models and adjustments.