Behavior of Geosynthetics in Pile-supported and Geosynthetic-reinforced Embankments

The subsoil and the embankment treated by a single pile are simplified as a circular column. Considering the soil arching effect, an analytical study is conducted to investigate pile-soil-geosynthetics interactions. Theoretical solution suggests that the inclusion of geosynthetics in the fill enhances the pile efficacy and reduces the differential settlement when the soil arch is in plastic state; when the soil arch is in elastic state, there is no much difference between the cases with or without the geosynthetics. When the ratio of the geosynthetics stiffness to the soft ground stiffness is small, the geosynthetics has little effect in reducing the maximum settlement midway between the pile caps. Finally, these formulas are employed to analyze a set of full-scale model tests and a practical case.