Analytical Solutions for Settlements of a Pavement Structure on Geosynthetic-Reinforced Embankments Overlying Voids
摘要
This study develops an analytical model to determine the settlement of a composite system involving a pavement structure resting on a geosynthetic-reinforced embankment overlying voids. In the model, the pavement structure is postulated as an Euler–Bernoulli beam on a continuous elastic foundation, and the geosynthetic-reinforced embankment is idealized as an Euler–Bernoulli beam spanning voids. The Winkler foundation model is revised to simulate the absence of the voids under the geosynthetic-reinforced layer, and the corresponding equations and solutions for the composite system subjected to uniform loading are derived. The proposed solution is validated against the existing theoretical methods of a dual-beam on a continuous foundation without voids. The results indicate that the existence of underlying voids has a great impact on the settlements of a composite system involving a pavement structure resting on a geosynthetic-reinforced embankment. The proposed analytical model can provide a theoretical insight into a preliminary design of a geosynthetic-reinforced embankment overlying voids.