A Numerical Study on Geofoam Application in the Settlement Reduction of Railway Embankments

Construction of railway track embankment over a soft subgrade will bring the necessity of using soil improvement methods for bearing capacity and settlement criteria satisfaction. As a practical improvement method, railway embankment filled with geofoam blocks is studied in this paper. First; a bilinear stress-strain model developed in FLAC2D to simulate geofoam embankment behavioral model. Secondly, the stability of a specified height range of geofoam embankments under static and dynamic train surcharges is investigated. Finally; parametric studies are executed to monitor the variation of track dynamic settlement due to embankments height, subgrade un-drained strengths (Cu) and train surcharge amplitude and velocity. Results are verified. Such parameters can significantly affect the track dynamic settlement. Using multivariable regression and least squared methods; analytical equations are derived to quantify an estimation of track dynamic settlement based on participating parameters