ABSTRACT
In the Western coastal region of Morocco, the first high speed railway line in Africa is being constructed over soft ground with a relatively high settlement rate potential. Vertical drains with preloading were used as ground improvement techniques underneath Sebou right bank Embankment, to accelerate the consolidation process. In this study, Numerical simulations are performed using different constitutive models incorporated in Plaxis based on the finite element code, to understand the soft soils behavior underneath the Embankment. The constitutive models includes, an elasto-viscoplastic constitutive model that account for creep named SSCM (Soft Soil Creep Model), and a recently developed advanced constitutive model S-CLAY1S that account for plastic anisotropy and destructuration. The Modified Cam Clay Model (MCCM) is used for comparison only. The results are validated by monitoring field data. Furthermore, three different numerical matching procedures were established for converting the model to an equivalent 2d plane strain multi-drain analysis. The aim of the study is to understand the behavior of soft soils under high speed railway line, and also to test the beneficial use of such advanced models to predict the settlement and pore water variations during Embankment construction and after.
