Comparative study of four consolidation settlement estimation methods of a railway embankment

Abstract

Embankment is one of the oldest and most common constructions of public works due to its low cost, simplicity and good performance. This is why it is often required for economic reasons even if underlying soil is of poor quality. Meanwhile, this is not without risk, since we notice sometimes significant damages such as intolerable settlements, landslides and erosion. These risks are particularly dangerous in the case of railways where tolerances are mainly severe. In this work we propose a comparative study of four theoretical methods for estimating the consolidation settlement of a railway embankment. These methods are Terzaghi (1925), Asaoka (1978), Tan (1995) and Chunlin (2014). We applied each method to estimate the final settlement of the 15m high embankment at PK245+000 of the railway under construction Boughezoul-M'sila (Algeria).