Basal reinforced earth embankments on piled foundations: The role of embankment construction process

The current design methods for Geosynthetic-Reinforced and Pile-Supported embankments disregard on one side the effect of the embankment construction and on the other one the stiffness of embankment, foundation soil, column and geosynthetics. What is missing nowadays is a simplified design method capable of taking all these aspects into account. To this aim, in this paper the authors present the results of a series of numerical analyses simulating the embankment construction. In particular, the evolution during construction of embankment displacements is discussed and the maximum tensile force in the geosynthetic reinforcements is compared with the one suggested by the most popular standards. To clearly highlight the mechanical processes taking place in the embankment, an ideal problem is considered: the pile shaft is assumed to be smooth, the piles to be founded on a rigid bedrock and the embankment construction to take place under drained conditions.