ABSTRACT
The majority of all projects concerning railway embankments in Denmark is designed using Limit equilibrium Methods and Finite element methods (FEM), typically based on Slope/w or Slide and Plaxis 2D. The Mohr Coulomb failure criterion is often used in these designs. If the embankment fill consists of a frictional material a constant value is used for the friction angle when using the Mohr Coulomb failure criterion. OptumG2 is as Plaxis a Finite Element Method program for geotechnical stability and deformation problems. In addition to the traditional constitutive models, OptumG2 features a constitutive model called the GSK Model taking into account the stress dependency of the friction angle. The GSK Model can be described by three parameters φ1, φ2 and c, and these have been found on the basis of values from a database of peak friction angles established at The Norwegian Geotechnical Institute in Oslo (Andersen and Schjetne 2013).
This article will cover a traditional design of a railway embankment in accordance with The Danish Railroad Codes and Eurocodes. The embankment fill will consist of sand with known values of relative density and coefficient of uniformity. The design of the railway embankment will be made in Slope/w and Plaxis 2D, where the utilised constitutive model is Mohr Coulomb and in OptumG2, where the utilised constitutive model is the GSK Model.
