Dynamic Analysis of Improved High-Rise Railway Embankments by Micropiles

One of the most important issues in the management of railways maintenance is the stabilization of the bed and railroad tracks under the influence of environmental loads. This issue is of particular importance, especially in tall embankments, based on loose platforms with little or no bearing capacity. Among the existing methods to improve the embankment and the bedding in the railway lines, installation of micropiles for fixing the embankment and the bed, which does not block the line and stop the traffic, is preferable. In the present paper, a parametric study was carried out; using ABAQUS, for high rise embankment improved by micropiles with different patterns, operational loads, railroad traffic and severe earthquakes, using the LM71 loading standard. The results indicate that the factors affecting the pattern of the microplots generally include the distribution of loads, shear parameters and bearing capacity, depth of the micropiles and geometric characteristics of the embankment. It should be noted that the optimum arrangement of micropiles for improvement, is the length between the toe and 0.25 to 0.5 percent of the slope length, which reduces the maintenance and handling cost.