Experimental investigation on soil arching in piled reinforced embankments

There was significant influence of soil arching on behaviors of piled reinforced embankments.The stress ratio between pile and soil was an important parameter to assess soil arching.Model tests were carried out to investigate the influence of relative displacement between pile and soil,embankment height,width and clear spacing of cap-beam,and geotextile on pile-soil stress ratio and settlements of the embankments.It was shown that: ① Pile-soil stress ratio varied with the relative displacement between pile and soil until some upper and lower bound values.② Higher ratio of embankment height to cap-beam clear spacing as well as higher ratio of cap-beam width to clear spacing would result in higher pile-soil stress ratio.③ The inclusion of geotextile would increase pile-soil stress ratio,the higher the geotextile tensile strength,the higher the stress ratio.④ When the ratio of embankment height to cap-beam clear spacing h/s ≤1.4,apparent differential settlements might occur on the surface of embankment.When h/s ≥1.6,no apparent differential settlements would occur on the surface of embankment.The conclusions drawn from the tests could provide valuable reference for the practice.