Prediction of embankment behavior of regulating reservoir with foundation improved by vacuum consolidation method

The present paper addresses the numerical prediction of the behavior of a ground and a reservoir dyke with a retaining wall at the site of a regulating reservoir whose soft soil foundation is improved by using both the usual embankment preloading and vacuum consolidation. To evaluate the settlement, the lateral deformation, and the dissipation of pore pressure during vacuum preloading, a numerical analysis using an elasto-plastic FEM for soil–water coupled problems, incorporating the SYS Cam-clay model, is carried out in two dimensions. However, a change in the soil parameters during the vacuum preloading leads to a less accurate computation. To account for the uncertainties in the input parameters of the constitutive model for the improved ground, an inverse analysis approach is adopted. The particle filter is used to identify the compression index of the clay layers and the coefficient of permeability of the organic soil layer based on the measured settlement at the bottom of the preloading embankment during the vacuum consolidation. The reservoir dyke with a retaining wall is constructed on an improved foundation after removing the preloading embankment, and an attempt is made to predict its performance after construction by an elasto-plastic FEM for soil–water coupled problems using the identified parameters.