Analysis of the railway heave induced by soil swelling at a site in southern France

Abstract

Abstract:In order to better understand the heave observed on the railway roadbed of the French high-speed train (TGV) at Chabrillan in southern France, the swelling behaviour of the involved expansive clayey marl taken from the site by coring was investigated. The aim the study is to analyse the part of heave induced by the soil swelling. First, the swell potential was determined by flooding the soil specimen in an oedometer under its in-situ overburden stress. On the other hand, in order to assess the swell induced by the excavation undertaken during the construction of the railway, a second method was applied. The soil was first loaded to its in situ overburden stress existing before the excavation. It was then flooded and unloaded to its current overburden stress (after the excavation). The swell induced by this unloading was considered. Finally, the experimental results obtained were analyzed, together with the results from other laboratory tests performed previously and the data collected from the field monitoring. This study allowed estimating the heave induced by soil swelling. Subsequently, the part of heave due to landslide could be estimated which corresponds to the difference between the monitored heave and the swelling heave.

Heave analysis of shallow foundations founded in swelling clayey soil at N’Gaous city in Algeria

“…When the maximum unbalanced force is small compared with the total applied force associated th stress or boundary displacement changes, the model is considered to be in equilibrium. The (5) where C s is the swelling index of layer i and e is the initial void ratio of layer i.…”

“…In the literature, several studies have been conducted on problems related to swelling soils, for example, Nelson and Miller, [1] Nelson et al, [2] Chen, [3] Fredlund et al [4] The high swelling pressure, causes differential structures' heaving, in particular light structures of low stiffness built on shallow foundations. [5] However, this heaving induces costly damage, most of which is cracks in walls and slabs. Algeria, like other countries with a dry climate, also suffers from the problem of soil swelling.…”

Infiltration Column for Studying the Lateral Swell Behavior of Expansive Clay

“…Hydro-mechanical processes in unsaturated expansive clay need to be considered when studying the damage to buildings, structures and roads caused by ground movement related to moisture transfer (Basma et al 1996;Tang et al 2009a). In addition, compacted expansive clays are increasingly used for engineered barriers for environmental protection (Gens 2010).…”

Quellverhalten eines teilgesättigten Kaolinit‐Tons: Laborversuche, Modell und numerische Simulation

“…Weiterhin können erhebliche, auf den Tunnelausbau einwirkende Quelldrücke entstehen, die in der Bemessung zu berücksichtigen sind. Bei Einschnitten für Verkehrswege können bei Entlastung und Wasseraufnahme Quellhebungen auftreten, deren Größe bei den Gebrauchstauglichkeitsnachweisen der Fahrbahnsysteme berücksichtigt werden muss [4] [5]. Quellhebungen von bindigen Böden in Klimazonen mit ausgeprägter Regen-bzw.…”