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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Built Environ.
Sec. Geotechnical Engineering
Volume 10 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fbuil.2024.1379851
This article is part of the Research Topic Recent Advances in Soil Improvement View all articles

Full-scale trial embankment and numerical analysis of mortar column inclusion and high-strength geotextile-reinforced load transfer platform on peat

Provisionally accepted
Agus Himawan Agus Himawan 1Andhika Sahadewa Andhika Sahadewa 1*Masyhur Irsyam Masyhur Irsyam 1Reguel Mikhail Reguel Mikhail 2Idwan Suhendra Idwan Suhendra 3Muchamad Rifai Muchamad Rifai 4Karsten Beckhaus Karsten Beckhaus 5Yasin Widodo Yasin Widodo 6Christian Moormann Christian Moormann 7Helmut F. Schweiger Helmut F. Schweiger 8Abi M. Hakim Abi M. Hakim 9Hasbullah Nawir Hasbullah Nawir 1Fahmi Aldiamar Fahmi Aldiamar 10
  • 1 Bandung Institute of Technology, Bandung, West Java, Indonesia
  • 2 Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore
  • 3 PT. Hutama Karya, Jakarta, Indonesia
  • 4 PT. Hutama Karya Infrastruktur, Jakarta, Indonesia
  • 5 BAUER Spezialtiefbau GmbH, Schrobenhausen, Germany
  • 6 PT. Bauer Pratama Indonesia, Jakarta, Indonesia
  • 7 University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
  • 8 Graz University of Technology, Graz, Styria, Austria
  • 9 Institut Teknologi Indonesia, Tangerang, Banten, Indonesia
  • 10 Ministry of Public Works and Housing (Indonesia), Jakarta, Jakarta, Indonesia

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    A pile-supported embankment has been recognized as a long-standing solution for construction in compressible soft soils. Instead of improving the physical and mechanical properties of the soft soil, this method rather emphasizes efforts to transfer the embankment load to a competent layer below the compressible layer. Mortar Column Inclusion (Inklusi Kolom Mortar/IKM) is recognized as one of rigid inclusions in pile-supported embankment. The IKM, combined with a Load Transfer Platform (LTP), has been widely utilized for supporting embankment. Many studies on the pile-supported embankment generally focused on the arching mechanisms and geotextile tensile force evaluation. But most of them were conducted on soft cohesive soils. The application of pile-supported embankment on peat is rarely studied comprehensively. This manuscript presents a study on a full-scale trial embankment on peat in West Sumatra, Indonesia. The 8-m high trial embankment was supported by a series of IKM piles and a geotextile-reinforced LTP layer. In this study, a set of instruments was installed in the embankment, ground, LTP, at geotextile, and IKM. These instruments included a series of vibrating wire earth pressure cells, vibrating wire strain gauges, fiber optic sensors, vibrating wire piezometers, settlement profilers, settlement plates, and inclinometers. These instruments provided observation in ground movements, IKM displacements, and stresses in materials. Comprehensive evaluation of the field monitoring allowed for studying the load transfer via arching mechanism, deformation pattern, and the performance of the IKM in peat. A set of finite element analyses was conducted for comparison and verification. Field monitoring results and FEM analysis showed good agreement. This study shows the potential of this ground improvement method for embankment construction on peat.

    Keywords: Embankment, Mortar column inclusion, IKM, geotextile, peat

    Received: 06 Feb 2024; Accepted: 30 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Himawan, Sahadewa, Irsyam, Mikhail, Suhendra, Rifai, Beckhaus, Widodo, Moormann, Schweiger, Hakim, Nawir and Aldiamar. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Andhika Sahadewa, Bandung Institute of Technology, Bandung, 40116, West Java, Indonesia

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.