Creep prediction of rock embankment in railway roadbed using Kelvin model

Railway embankments using crushed rock from tunnel construction are widely implemented to reduce construction costs. However, if residual settlement continuously occurs beyond allowable settlement after track construction, maintenance for railway safety operation may expend great resources of cost and time. Research on rock fill embankments has mainly been performed in the areas of dams and roadways, while researches in railway field were mostly studied for compaction characteristics and settlement behaviors in laboratory. There are very few research results using field measurement to estimate long-term behavior of railway embankments. In this study, field measurements were conducted on over-20-meter-high railway embankments for which large and long-term residual settlement after track construction were expected. Using the back-analysis technique, creep parameters for the Kelvin Body Model are proposed and a numerical method to estimate the amount of and time for residual settlement are also proposed in this research.