The effect of creep-induced settlement and strength gain on flood embankments
The effect of creep-induced settlement and strength gain on flood embankments
Kilometres of flood embankments have protected coastal and river banks for decades. Predicted sea level rise due to climate change is likely to require these earth embankments to be raised. Historically, empirical and semi-empirical methods were used in the design of flood embankments founded on soft alluvial clays. Such methods, however, are unable to account for the enhancement of the stiffness and strength properties by transient processes in the clay. This paper presents a numerical study on the behaviour of a flood embankment. The problem is analysed using a plane-strain coupled finite element model of a trial embankment constructed in the Thames Estuary in the 1970s. The foundation soil is modelled using an overstress-based elastic-viscoplastic constitutive model in the equivalent time framework. The predicted settlements and gains in undrained shear strength due to the transient processes of consolidation and creep are quantified and verified against site measurements. It is shown that the numerical model can reproduce accurately the time-dependent behaviour of the alluvial clay.
Danette Tan; Lidija Zdravkovic; David Malcolm Potts; Truong Le
10th European Conference on Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering (NUMGE2023)
7. Dams, embankments and slopes
https://doi.org/10.53243/NUMGE2023-266
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