PREDICTION OF TRIAL EMBANKMENT BEHAVIOUR. HERTFORDSHIRE COUNTY COUNCILS - STANSTEAD ABBOTTS ---PROCEEDINGS OF THE PREDICTION SYMPOSIUM ON A REINFORCED EMBANKMENT ON SOFT GROUND, 17-18 SEPTEMBER 1986, KING'S COLLEGE, DEPT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING, LONDON

Predictions of tensar forces, displacements of the upper clay layer, pore water pressure changes and the deformed shape of inclinometer 1 at the end of construction and tensar forces and soil settlements after 18 months of consolidation presented in this paper were developed using a plane strain finite element analysis. This analysis incorporated incremental construction, a "bounding surface plasticity" representation of the component soils, a linear viscoelastic representation of the tensar behavior including a simple expression for the creep function, large deflection modeling of the tensar elements to capture the "tensioned membrane" effect and modeling of the water flow including an approximation of the true three dimensional flow character of the discrete wick drains. This paper is presented in four parts. First, a rather general discussion of modeling assumptions and properties used in the highly developed finite element code are presented along with a summary of the analyses carried out. The second and third parts contain detailed discussions on the modeling of the water flow and the soil behavior which are the two dominant factors in defining the system behavior. Finally, results of the analysis at the end of construction and after 18 months of consolidation are presented in graphical form and discussed.(a) for the covering abstract of the conference see IRRD 819605.