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Abstract: Total and differential settlements are major concerns in embankment design. Geosynthetic-reinforced and pile-supported embankments are recent innovations designed to reduce the total and differential settlements of an embankment, especially on soft subgrade soil. In this paper, semi-analytical solutions were developed to assess the performance of this type of embankment. The geosynthetic-reinforced cushion was idealized as an elastic foundation beam. The vertical piles and subgrade soils were idealized as elastic springs. Winkler’s elastic foundation beam theory was used in the analysis, which considered the shear resistances at the top and bottom of the geosynthetic-reinforced cushion. Semi-analytical solutions were proposed to quantify the effects of various factors, such as soil–beam interface resistance, pile stiffness, pile spacing and the elastic modulus of the foundation beam. It was found that the maximum and differential settlements of the foundation beam can be reduced by increasing pile stiffness, reducing pile spacing, and increasing the elastic modulus of the beam. The characteristics of geosynthetic reinforcement play an important role because they are directly related to the tension strength and elastic modulus of the foundation beam. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Geocell reinforcement has been increasingly applied to road embankment engineering. Deformation calculation is one of the major concerns during the design process. In this paper, the power-series method was employed to investigate the performance of a geocell-reinforced mattress under symmetric loads. The geocell-reinforced mattress was idealized as a beam on a Winkler foundation. In the analysis, the soil–foundation beam interface resistance, related to the horizontal deformation coupling with the vertical deformation, was considered. Semi-analytic solutions were developed to assess the deformations and internal forces of the foundation beam and verified against an existing finite element method . The results of the proposed method were close to the results from the finite element method. Moreover, the effects of various factors, such as height of embankment, horizontal and vertical foundation coefficients, composite elastic modulus and height of geocell-reinforced mattress, on the foundation beam settlement and the tension force within the beam are discussed. It was found that the interface resistance related to the horizontal deformation of the beam has a reduction effect on the embankment settlement, and it is beneficial to reduce the embankment settlement by increasing the beam rigidity and strengthening the subgrade soil body. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]