3D Finite Element Analyses on Dynamic Response of Highway Embankments with EPS Geofoam Fill

On the contrary of the common belief, highway embankments are as susceptible to earthquake hazards as any other engineering structures. In addition, highways must remain stable and operational in case of an earthquake to provide the required emergency and safety needs. In light of the recent advances and latest research in geotechnical earthquake engineering, geosynthetics can successfully and effectively be used to reinforce highway embankments against the primary and secondary effects of earthquake-induced damages. This study covers the numerical simulations of the dynamic response of highway embankments, namely unreinforced and EPS Geofoam highway embankments. A series of geophysical experiments were performed to assess the foundation soil properties and site response characteristics which were later integrated into the 3D FEM analyses. Finite Element Analysis is a powerful tool to estimate the dynamic response of engineering structures in real life. The obtained numerical results clearly show that using EPS Geofoam fill in highway embankments can successfully and effectively reduce the resultant total displacements and transmitted accelerations under dynamic conditions and increase the seismic performance of those structures with respect to the pre-defined performance indicators.