PERFORMANCE DESIGN OF ROAD EMBANKMENT ON SOFT GROUND

Abstract

The performance-based design of road embankment on soft ground is scheduled to be introduced in the near future. In this paper, an applicability of an elasto visco-plastic soil/water coupled FEM to the performance-based road design is discussed. FEM analysis is carried out to simulate the long-term stress-deformation behaviour and the stability during construction of the actual road embankment on the soft ground. The analyzed and measured results agreed well and the maintenance cost estimated by the calculated residual settlement also agreed with the actual cost. Some case studies to select the optimum countermeasure for soft ground considering the road performance and minimum life-cycle-cost are carried out. One example of the performance-based design using FEM is shown through the case studies.