Article
Case Study: Unsaturated Embankment Failure on Soft Soils
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
(2020)
Abstract
This paper describes the application of unsaturated soil mechanics to an interstate connecting-ramp embankment that failed during construction. Specifically, matric suction is incorporated into the calculation of the tension crack (TC) depth induced by desiccation and strain incompatibility and the contribution of matric suction to embankment shear strength. The results are compared with field observations to assess the viability of unsaturated soil mechanics in modeling compacted embankments in stability analyses. Results from this study suggest that using unsaturated shear strength parameters while introducing a TC in the compacted fill yields a reasonable inverse analysis of this interstate embankment. This may be preferred in slope stability analyses to the current practice of using an undrained shear strength (i.e., cohesion) for the unsaturated compacted fill and including a TC to generate a reasonable factor of safety.
Keywords
- Soft soils,
- Unsaturated soils,
- Shear strength,
- Fills,
- Soil analysis,
- Compaction (material),
- Compacted soils,
- Case studies
Disciplines
Publication Date
December 1, 2020
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)GT.1943-5606.0002382
Citation Information
Ghada S. Ellithy and Timothy D. Stark. "Case Study: Unsaturated Embankment Failure on Soft Soils" Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering Vol. 146 Iss. 12 (2020) p. 5020011 Available at: http://works.bepress.com/ghada_ellithy/3/