Introduction

Piled embankments are applied for the construction of roads and railways on soft soil. A A piled embankment consists of a field op piles, with on top of that an embankment. Piled embankments are applied for the construction of roads and railways on soft soil. 

A horizontal reinforcement layer is applied above the piles, at the base of the embankment. This is the basal reinforcement. A new, innovative development is the application of corrosion-free steel grid basal reinforcement. This new reinforcement type may improve the resilience and sustainability of piled embankments.

The existing calculation models for designing piled embankments were developed for geosynthetic basal reinforcement. They do not apply for steel reinforcement due to the high bending stiffness of the steel. This project looks at the behaviour of piled embankments with steel reinforcement. It is the purpose to develop a calculation model to design the steel reinforcement of a piled embankment. In addition, this project looks at the influence of the pile stiffness of the piles and how the subsoil consolidation behaviour affects on the development of soil arching.

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