Analysis of Load Transfer and the Law of Deformation within a Pile-Supported Reinforced Embankment

In this paper, the load-transfer mechanism and settlement behaviors of the pile-supported reinforced embankment are reviewed by laboratory model tests, and a series of finite element method (FEM) modellings are conducted to analyze the soil-arching geometry and embankment deformation patterns of the pile-supported reinforced embankment. The results show that: the embankment load distribution is significantly impacted by the filling cohesion because of the effect of cohesion on the interaction between particles. The soil pressure difference between the center and corner of the pile caps decreases with the increase of filling cohesion. The pile-subsoil stress ratio decreases with the increase of filling cohesion. The embankment deformation behavior and soil-arching geometry are less affected by the change in filling cohesion compared with the influence of pile spacing. That may because of the fact that although the cohesion of the embankment filling has been increased, the granular material’s properties have not been fundamentally changed. Pile-subsoil different settlement decreases with the increase of embankment filling cohesion, and the different settlement at the mid-span between four piles decreases by 4.09% and 6.34%, respectively, as filling cohesion increases from 0 kPa to 11 kPa and 25 kPa. The height of the soil-arching crown decreases with the increase of filling cohesion, and the height of the soil-arching crown between horizontal adjacent piles decreases by 3.85%, 7.69%, and 9.62%, as filling cohesion increases from 5 kPa to 15 kPa, 25 kPa and 45 kPa. The rate of decrease in soil-arching height gradually decreases with increasing cohesion. The height of the soil-arching between the horizontal adjacent piles is about 1.0 (s−a). The height of soil arching between the diagonal adjacent piles is about 1.02 (s−a). The differential settlement at the same height inside the embankment decreases with the increase of filling cohesion, and the height of the equal settlement plane is basically the same as the height of soil arching.