Staged Construction of Embankment on Soft Clay
Hi all,
Currently, I am working on a design and staged construction of embankments on soft clay. We would like to construct embankment and install PVDs to achive designed platform level and speed up the consolidation rate. There are spun piles directly next to the future embankments. In order to ensure the deformation of the piles is below the allowable tolerance, we would like to place the fill in stages.
I would like to ask some questions which are as follows:
1. Undrained strength Analysis ( cu ≠ 0; φu = 0)
I would like to use undrained parameters for stability analysis. The first fill height is limitted to that which has a factor of safety that is equal to or greater than the minimum acceptable interim value (FS = 1.15 t0 1.2). This initial fill height is used as a starting point. Then, I allow the the soil to settle for a period of time so that the soil will gain the the undrained shear strength (
Δcu).
- Could you help me to elaborate more detail about how to estimate the gain in Δcu ?
- I am looking for some references discussing about the increase in Δcu such as those written by Ladd or other experts. Could you please share some references so that I can study them in detail ?
2. Calculating the deformation of the piles
I would like to model the piles in PLAXIS 2D ( this is the only software that I am familiar with). How do I model the piles so that the piles behaviour is a pile row?
Are there any ways to estimate the deformation of the piles? Could you please share to me.
