Stabilising railway embankments using an integrated tied back-to-back strengthening system Available to Purchase

This study investigates the role of an integrated tied back-to-back strengthening system in increasing the failure load and decreasing the crest settlement of railway embankments. The strengthening system consists of bars or tendons installed through the embankment and tied together with continuous plates on each side. Numerous three-dimensional numerical finite-element models of railway embankments with and without the strengthening system were analysed to obtain the optimum level for installation of the system and the mechanical specifications required to satisfy embankment stability requirements. Six 10 m-high embankments with 1:1 side-slopes, three with the strengthening system and three without, were constructed at a 1:20 scale in a loading chamber and uniformly loaded on the crest. The results revealed that the unstrengthened embankments failed under an average stress level of 123 kN/m² with an average crest settlement of 38·5 mm. The strengthened embankments failed under an average stress level of 186·67 kN/m² with a crest settlement of 29·0 mm, representing a 51% increase in failure stress and a 25% decrease in crest settlement.