DefinePK

Abstract

Clay soils are generally linked to the shrink-swell phenomenon. This phenomenon causes many disorders in the infrastructure and in particular railway infrastructures, which are extremely sensitive to soil deformations. This is mainly reflected through the deterioration of the geometry and performance of the railway, and it has a notable impact on maintenance and servicing costs. This paper presents the analysis of the settlement of clay soils, on the one hand on the basis of the results of geotechnical tests carried out in-situ and in the laboratory and on the other hand by using numerical modelling using the finite element method. This analysis shows that the results are very close and allows a preventive mapping of the risk distribution along the section of the studied railway track. To mitigate these risks, the feasibility of the substitution technique was studied through removing 4 m from the soil and replacing it with selected materials. This technique has shown a significant improvement in the performance and behavior of the clay formation.