Research on the influence law of bridge foundation settlement with seasonal underground water level change on high speed railway

Abstract

Currently, the serious land subsidence disaster frequently occurred in China, leading to the growing and increasingly serious environmental impact and social harm. However, the high-speed railway is very strict with the track regularity and the control standard of foundation settlement, especially for uneven settlement. During last two years, the continuous observation and theatrical analysis is carrying on, and the results indicates that a pier in the high speed railway bridge presents a cyclical abnormal change law of floating in the rainy season and sinking in the dry season for 22 bridge foundations, and the variation law is consistent with the variation rule of the underground water level. The maximum of floating and sinking are 23mm and 16mm, separately, and the variation range of the underground water level are from 11.2m to 30.8m. Based on the general finite element program ABAQUS, the three dimensional finite element model is established, in order to study the interaction between the underground water level and bridge foundation. The two types of piles, such as friction piles and column piles, are considered, then the influence law of the variation of groundwater level on the foundation settlement was discussed, and characteristics of the stress field and deformation field were revealed, which was verified by actual measured data, the results show that the friction piles affected by groundwater level change is significantly obvious than that bearing pile. Finally, the practical suggestions were proposed for the operation and maintenance of the high-speed railway.