Research on factors influencing stability of Subgrade Soil Cave in karst area based on Soil Arching Effect

Abstract

In karst areas of China, subgrade cave collapse is a serious threat to traffic safety. In this paper, numerical simulation and experimental validation are used to examine the effects of different collapse widths, fill heights, and cohesive forces on the stability of subgrade soil caves. The results of the experiment indicate that with the increase of collapse width, the load sharing in the stable area increases, and the stability of the soil caves decreases. The stability area's load distribution increases with increasing filling height, however the filling height has no effect on the stability area's overall change trend in terms of soil pressure. The greater the cohesion, the smaller the load sharing in the stable region, indicating that the stability of the soil caves increases with the increase of cohesion.