Railway embankments stabilization by tied back-to-back system

The present study was devoted to the laboratory and numerical investigation of tied back-to-back system for stabilizing high railway embankments. Thus, six 10 m embankments in the scale of 1:20 with the side slope of 1:1 were constructed in the laboratory and uniformly loaded on the crest in a loading chamber. The first series of embankments was constructed and loaded without tied back-to-back system, while the second series was constructed with separated tied back-to-back systems. The obtained results showed that the separated tied back-to-back system can increase the embankment failure load up to 35%. In the next step, a numerical finite-element model was developed using Plaxis 3D and verified by the results of laboratory tests. Moreover, by means of the verified model, embankments with the height of 10, 15, and 20 m were simulated and the effectiveness of tied back-to-back parameters (like tied back-to-back level, longitudinal spacing, tie rod–soil interface coefficient, tie rod diameter, end plate dimensions, and thickness on embankment stability) was analyzed.