Numerical study on settlement of high-fill airports in collapsible loess geomaterials: A case study of Lüliang Airport in Shanxi Province, China

Abstract

Foundation settlement is of great significance for high-fill engineering in collapsible loess areas. To predict the construction settlement of Lüliang Airport located in Shanxi Province, China, a plane strain finite element method considering the linear variation in the modulus, was carried out in this paper based on the results of geotechnical tests. The stress and deformation of four typical sections caused by layered fill are simulated, and then the settlement of the high-fill airport is calculated and analyzed by inputting three sets of parameters. The relative soft parameters of loess geomaterials produce more settlement than the relatively hard parameters. The thicker the filling body is, the greater the settlement is. The filling body constrained by mountains on both sides produces less settlement than the filling body constrained by a mountain on only one side even the filling thickness is almost the same. The settlement caused by the original subbase accounts for 56%–77% of the total settlement, while the fill soils themselves accounts for 23%–44% of the total settlement, which is approximately consistent with the field monitoring results. It provides a good reference for predicting the settlement of similar high-fill engineering.

Keywords

high-fill airport / collapsible loess / settlement deformation / numerical calculation

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