Analysis of Embankment Supported Over Variable Length Pile to Improve Soft Ground

Embankments constructed on soft soils have a tendency to spread load laterally because of horizontal earth pressures acting within the embankment. Such soils possess poor properties such as high compressibility, low shear, and bearing capacity. Embankments on such soft ground commonly adopted for the construction of roads, bridges, etc. are often affected by long term settlements. To overcome these problems construction of embankment supported by pile foundation is a reliable solution. Provision of end-bearing piles under the embankment reduces the displacements to a maximum extant but may not be an economical solution always. Also the provision of floating piles may not meet the displacement reduction requirements always. In such circumstances, variable length piles such as the combination of end-bearing piles and floating piles is a workable solution to reinforce the basal geogrid. This paper presents the results of basal geogrid reinforced pile supported embankment using three-dimensional finite element analysis with pile length variation to analyze the settlement and lateral displacement of the embankment. According to the findings, the variable length pile supported embankment reduces the settlements to a greater extant when compared with the floating pile supported embankment.