Coupled mechanical and hydraulic modeling of a geosynthetic-reinforced and pile-supported embankment

The increasing application of conventional geosynthetic-reinforced and pile-supported (GRPS) embankments (called CT embankments) for ground improvement has resulted in many problems, for example, intolerable total or differential settlements, large lateral displacements, local instabilities, and low efficiencies of the geosynthetic. In this study, a new ground improvement technique, referred to as fixed-geosynthetic-reinforced and pile-supported embankment (called FGT embankment), is proposed. A two-dimensional numerical simulation that uses coupled mechanical and hydraulic modeling is conducted to investigate the performance of an FGT embankment. A sensitivity analysis is performed to investigate influencing factors, such as the tensile stiffness of the geosynthetic, the pile wall spacing, the elastic modulus of the soft clay, the elastic modulus of the pile wall and the pile wall width. The numerical results show that the FGT embankment can sufficiently reduce the total and differential settlements, lateral displacement and excess pore water pressure, and enhance the stability of the embankment.