Structural Engineering and Mechanics

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A field investigation on an expansive soil slope supported by a sheet-pile retaining structure

  • Zhen Zhang (School of Civil Engineering, Central South University) ;
  • Yu-Liang Lin (School of Civil Engineering, Central South University) ;
  • Hong-Ri Zhang (Guangxi Transportation Science & Technology Group Co. Ltd.) ;
  • Bin He (Yueyang Planning, Survey and Design Institute Co. Ltd.) ;
  • Guo-Lin Yang (School of Civil Engineering, Central South University) ;
  • Yong-Fu Xu (Department of Civil Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University)
  • Received : 2024.06.12
  • Accepted : 2024.07.19
  • Published : 2024.08.10
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Abstract

An expansive soil in 4970 special railway line in Dangyang City, China, has encountered a series of landslides due to the expansion characteristics of expansive soil over the past 50 years. Thereafter, a sheet-pile retaining structure was adopted to fortify the expansive soil slope after a comprehensive discussion. In order to evaluate the efficacy of engineering measure of sheet-pile retaining structure, the field test was carried out to investigate the lateral pressure and pile bending moment subjected to construction and service conditions, and the local daily rainfall was also recorded. It took more than 500 days to carry out the field investigation, and the general change laws of lateral pressure and pile bending moment versus local daily rainfall were obtained. The results show that the effect of rainfall on the moisture content of backfill behind the wall decreases with depth. The performance of sheet-pile retaining structure is sensitive to the intensity of rainfall. The arching effect is reduced significantly by employing a series of sheet behind piles. The lateral pressure behind the sheet exhibits a single-peak distribution. The turning point of the horizontal swelling pressure distribution is correlated with the self-weight pressure distribution of soil and the variation of soil moisture content. The measured pile bending moment is approximately 44% of the ultimate pile capacity, which indicates that the sheet-pile retaining structure is in a stable service condition with enough safety reserve.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

The authors sincerely acknowledge the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51878667, 51678571), the National Key Research & Development Program of China (Grant No. 2019YFC1509800), and the Hunan Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 2011JJ30830, 2018JJ2517).

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