Settlement of a Full Scale Trial Embankment on Peat in Kalimantan: Field Measurements and Finite Element Simulations
Abstract: This paper presents
a study result of peat behaviors through numerical analysis using the finite
element method verified by full
scale field measurements.
Site investigation, construction,
instrumentation and monitoring
of a trial embankment on very compressible fibrous tropical peat layers
at Bereng Bengkel in Central Kalimantan have
been conducted by
the Agency of
Research and Development,
the Indonesia Ministry
of Public Works. Settlement responses of the embankment
have been investigated by a series of finite element simulations using two different
soil constitutive models: elastic perfectly plastic model with the Mohr-Coulomb
criteria and hyperbolic Hardening-Soil model. A half space finite element model
has been developed using the effective stress approach. Analyses were performed
with the coupled static/consolidation theory. The soil parameters, embankment
geome-try, construction sequence
and consolidation time
of peats and
clays were modeled
in accordance with
actual field trial embankment
conditions. Implementation
of the
numerical model and
simulations has completely
been performed by a
computer program, PLAXIS 2D.
For ground settlement
behavior at center
of embankment, this study
result shows that
both soil constitutive
models have reasonably
produced suitable deformation
behaviors. However, the settlement behaviors at embankment toes are not
as accurate as they are at center.
Keywords: Peat,
trial embankment, full
scale, field test,
numerical analysis, finite
element method, constitutive model, elastic perfectly
plastic, hardening-soil, Kalimantan, Indonesia
Author: Endra Susila
Journal Code: jptsipilgg120010
