RESPONSE ANALYSIS OF SOFT SUBGRADE SUBJECTED TO MOVING LOAD

Abstract

The transportation network on soft subgrade is an active interest among researchers due to the rapid urbanization of human civilizations. The soft subgrade is stabilized using geosynthetic to prevent undesired deformations and failure. In the present study, a numerical model is developed to examine the dynamic response of unpaved road using commercialized finite element software Abaqus. The dynamic implicit method is adopted to evaluate the velocity-induced load-deformation response of the soft subgrade. The numerically obtained results for unreinforced roads are compared with geosynthetic reinforced roads. The study showed that geosynthetic reinforcement improves serviceability under moving vehicle load by reducing and uniformly distributing vertical stresses on the subgrade. The maximum displacement of the subgrade layer is reduced to 74% by stabilizing with the geosynthetic material. The results demonstrate that the displacement response is increased with the increase in loading intensity. The introduction of geosynthetic reinforcement improves the threshold velocity (from 20 m/s to 27 m/s) of moving load on unpaved road supported by the subgrade layer. The study shows that geosynthetic reinforcement can be a viable solution to subsurface improvement for a shorter maintenance cycle, particularly on weak sub-grade.