Field test and numerical simulation for coordinated deformation of new subgrade and old embankment adjacent to river

Abstract

With the development of the economy in China, original roads may be unable to cope with the existing traffic. The expansion of the old embankment is the core problem for road expansion. Soft foundation differential settlements and pavement cracking along the joint between the new subgrade and old embankment often emerge after construction, especially during the operational period of the road. The Binjiang Avenue Project in Nanjing, China, is taken as a research example in this paper, and a typical test zone of about 300.0 m in length was selected to conduct research work through in-situ tests. The coordinated deformations of the subgrade combined with the old embankment under conditions of consolidation by drainage were researched using in-situ tests and numerical modeling. During the process of numerical modeling, the vertical drainage system in the compressible soft ground layers was simplified to be represented as the drainage band model and the equivalent sand-wall model. In addition, a soft ground creep model was adopted to calculate the deformation of the subgrade with the construction process. A comparison of the results between field tests and numerical simulations was carried out. The results show that there is good uniformity for both. Based on the results, three indexes for the new and old subgrade, such as the differential settlement, total settlement and post-settlement, should be viewed as the basis for the design and construction of the new subgrade and old embankment. Additionally, it was found that the soft ground model, drainage band model and equivalent sand-wall model are all completely suitable for the numerical modeling of the soft ground reinforcement subgrade. These results also provide a theoretical basis for the construction method of similar projects.