A novel framework for modeling the vegetation and atmosphere effect on the behaviour of infrastructure embankments

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Publication Title
A novel framework for modeling the vegetation and atmosphere effect on the behaviour of infrastructure embankments

Abstract
The soil-vegetation-atmosphere interaction is a dynamic process, which governs the continuous change of soil hydrological conditions. These changes directly affect the seasonal and long-term performance of infrastructure cut and embankment slopes. It has been established that the combined effect of vegetation and precipitation induces seasonal cycles of shrinkage and swelling, which give rise to serviceability issues. Previous numerical studies regarding the effect of the soil-vegetation-atmosphere system interaction on the behaviour of infrastructure embankments, were unable to quantitatively reproduce the observed hydraulic behaviour. They were either based on pure hydraulic approach or in case of fully coupled analyses were employing saturated mechanical models. The framework presented in this paper is based on the fully coupled flow-deformation analysis, combined with unsaturated soil mechanics theory and sophisticated climatic boundary conditions, implemented within the ICFEP numerical code. The instrumented railway embankment located in the UK, suffering from poor track ride quality related to the presence of vegetation on the slopes, is used as a case study for this investigation.
Authors
V. Pujevic; Lidija Zdravkovic

Published In

18th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ECSMGE2024)

Theme

E - Environment, water and energy

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