Full-Scale Embankment Failure Test Under Simulated Train Loading
Ville J. Lehtonen1; Christopher L. Meehan2; Tim T. Länsivaara3; Juho N. Mansikkamäki4
1Graduate Student, Tampere University of Technology, Department of Civil Engineering, Tampere, Finland.
E-mail:
ville.lehtonen@tut.fi (corresponding author)
2Bentley Systems Incorporated Chair of Civil Engineering & Associate Professor, University of Delaware, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering,
301 DuPont Hall, Newark, DE 19716, U.S.A.
E-mail:
cmeehan@udel.edu
3Professor, Tampere University of Technology, Department of Civil Engineering, Tampere, Finland.
E-mail:
tim.lansivaara@tut.fi
4Graduate Student, Tampere University of Technology, Department of Civil Engineering, Tampere, Finland.
E-mail:
juho.mansikkamaki@tut.fi
Géotechnique, 2015, Volume 65, Number 12,
pp. 961-974
Abstract
A full-scale embankment failure experiment was conducted in 2009 in Perniö, Finland. A small,
extensively instrumented railway embankment on a soft clay foundation was brought to failure by
loading over a period of 30 h. Instrumentation consisted of over 300 different measurement points,
including 37 piezometers and nine automatically monitored inclinometer tubes. The relatively rapid loading simulated a heavy train coming to a standstill on the embankment. The primary purpose of the
experiment was to gather field data of a failure caused by a rapidly applied load, with an emphasis on
the pore pressure response in the clay foundation layer. The test was also used to assess the suitability of
various instruments for real-time stability monitoring. The embankment failure was an asymmetric
bearing capacity mechanism that is hypothesised to have been triggered by an undrained creep rupture. During the last 2 h of the experiment, pore pressure and displacements increased at an accelerating rate
while the external load was kept constant. The time-dependency of the pore pressure and displacement
responses was a key factor in the experiment. With regards to monitoring of similar in-service train
embankments, proper placement of instruments according to predicted failure mechanisms was found
to be important.
Keywords
Clays; Creep; Embankments; Failure; Full-scale tests; Pore pressures
Reference
Lehtonen, V. J., Meehan, C. L., Länsivaara, T. T., and Mansikkamäki, J. N. (2015). “Full-Scale Embankment Failure Test Under Simulated Train Loading.” Géotechnique, The Institution of Civil Engineers, 65(12), 961-974. (doi:10.1680/geot.14.P.100)
