• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.9-18
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• 2010

A series of model tests were performed to investigate the load transfer by soil arching in geosynthetic-reinforced and pile-supported(GRPS) embankment systems. In the model tests, model piles with isolated cap were inserted in the model container and geosynthetics was laid on the pile caps below sand fills. The settlement of soft ground was simulated by rubber form. The loads acting on pile caps and the tensile strain of geosynthetics were monitored by data logging system. At the given interval ratio of pile caps, the efficiency in GRPS embankment systems increased with increasing the height of embankment fills, then gradually converged at constant value. Also, at the given height of embankment fills, the efficiency decreased with increasing the pile spacing. The embankment loads transferred on pile cap by soil arching increased when the geosynthetics installed with piles. This illustrated that reinforcing with the geosynthetics have a good effect to restraint the movement of surrounding soft grounds. The load transfer in GRPS embankment systems was affected by the interval ratio, height of fills, properties of grounds and tensile stiffness and so on.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.28 no.2C
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• pp.133-141
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• 2008

Theoretical analysis are developed to estimate the load transfer by soil arching in geosynthetic-reinforced and pile-supported(GRPS) embankment systems. According to the results of analyses, the efficiency of embankment pile systems increases when the geosynthetics are installed with piles. Especially the increment of efficiency is more remarkable in the low embankment height, where soil arching can not be fully developed. The factors affecting the load transfer in GRPS embankment systems are the pile spacing, the height and properties of embankments, and the strength of geosynthetics. The efficiency decreases with increasing the pile spacing, while it increases with the height and internal friction angle of embankment fills, and the strength of geosynthetics. These results of analyses show the proposed analysis method is resonable to estimate the soil arching in GRPS embankment systems.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.32 no.12
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• pp.79-91
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• 2016

Geosynthetic-reinforced and Pile-supported (GRPS) embankment method is widely used to construct structures on soft ground due to restraining residual settlement and their rapid construction. However, effect of cyclic loading has not been established although some countries suggest design methods through many studies. In this paper, cyclic loading tests were conducted to analyze dynamic load transfer characteristics of pile-supported embankment reinforced with geosynthetics. A series of 3 case full scale model tests which were non-reinforced, one-layer-reinforced, two-layer reinforced with geosynthetics were performed on piled embankments. In these series of tests, the height of embankment and pile spacing were selected according to EBGEO (2010) standard in Germany. As a result of the vertical load parts on the pile and on the geosynthetic reinforcement measured separately, cyclic loads transferred by only arching effect decreased with strength geosynthetic-reinforced case. However, final loads on the pile showed no differences among the cases. These results conflict with previous studies that reinforcement with geosynthetics increases transfer load concentrated on piles. In addition, it is observed that the load transferred to pile decreases at the beginning of cycle number due to reduction of arching effected by cyclic loading. Based on these results, transferred mechanism for cyclic load on GRPS system has been presented.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.276-284
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• 2009

Recently pile-supported embankments have emerged as an optimum method when the rapid construction and strict deformation of structures are required on soft soils. Especially geosynthetic-reinforced and pile-supported (GRPS) embankments are used worldwide as they can provide economic and effective solutions. However the load transfer mechanism in GRPS embankments is very complex, and not yet fully understood. Particularly the purpose and effect of geosynthetic inclusion are ambiguous and considered as an auxiliary measure assisting the arching effect of piles. Numerical parametric study using 3D finite element method has been conducted to investigate the effect of geosynthetic reinforcement on the load transfer mechanism of GRPS embankments. Numerical results suggested that as more stiffer geosynthetic is included, arching effect decreases considerably and the load concentration to the piles mostly caused by tension effect of geosynthetic. This finding is contradictory to the common understanding that geosynthetic inclusion only enhance the efficiency of load transfer. Consequently the design parameters determined from the numerical analyses are compared with those of three existing design methods. The problems of the existing methods are discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.13-22
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• 2021

Pile or column supported embankments have been increasingly employed to construct highway or railway embankments over soft soils. Piles or columns of stiffer material installed in the soft ground can provide the necessary support by transferring the embankment load to a firm stratum using a soil arching. However, there has been reported to occur a relatively large differential settlement between the piles and the untreated soils. Geosynthetic reinforced pile or column supported embankment (GRPS) is often used to minimize the differential settlement. Two dimensional finite element anlyses have been performed on both the column supported embankments and the geogrid reinforced column supported embankments by using a PLAXIS 2D to evaluate the soil arching effect. Based on the results obtained from finite element analyses, the stress reduction ratio decreases as the area replacement ratio increases in the column supported embankments. For the geogrid reinforced column supported embankments, the geogrid reinforcemnt can reduce differential settlements effectively. In additon, the use of stiffer geogrid is appeared to be more effective in reducing the differential settlements.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.87-96
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• 2015

Geosynthetics are widely used in different ways such as reinforcement of structures in road, railway, harbor and dam engineering, drainage, separation and erosion prevention. They are especially applied to reinforced retaining wall and slope or ground reinforcement. Recently, geosynthetics reinforced pile supported (GRPS) embankment was developed to improve stability and construability of embankments in railway engineering. Extension strains are usually measured by strain gauges adhered to geosynthetics to evaluate the stability of geosynthetics. However, the measurements are influenced by manufacturing method and stiffness of geosynthetics and also adherence of strain gauge. In this study, wide-width tensile strength tests were performed on three types of geosynthetics including geogrid, woven geotextile and non-woven geotextile. During the test, strains of geosynthetics were measured by both video extensometer and strain gauges adhered to the geosynthetics and the measured results were compared. Results show that the measured results by strain gauges have high reliability in case of large stiffness geosythetics like geogrid and woven geotextile, whereas they have very low reliability for small stiffness geosythetics like non-woven geotextile.