Software Used on this Project
Project Overview
In Windlesham, Surrey, United Kingdom, IBEX Consulting Engineers designed a new acoustic bund as part of a new development for Persimmon Homes Thames Valley. This development includes two earthwork embankments that serve as acoustic barriers between the new public open spaces and the nearby M3 motorway. The design work involved specifying the earthworks, conducting finite element analysis (FEA), and assessing slope stability and settlement analysis. The engineers used Oasys PDisp to model the ground movements related to the stress changes calculated for the earthwork embankments.
Both embankments needed to be 4.00 meters high, but the combined height reaches 10 meters in the northern small field due to higher ground levels. These embankments form an earthwork structure that acts as a noise barrier. No roads, footpaths, or similar structures will be placed on the embankments. The self-weight surcharge from the embankments will be transferred to the undisturbed natural ground beneath them.
How Oasys proved invaluable
The engineers used Oasys PDisp to perform settlement analysis in accordance with Eurocode 7. This included modelling the ground movements associated with that were associated with the changes in stress calculated for the earthwork embankments with variable vertical stresses ranging from 20 to 80kN/m2.
The analysis results showed that total settlement predictions ranged from 45 to 55 mm. Using reasonable characteristic compressibility and stiffness input values, the PDisp analyses estimated an immediate settlement of 47mm under the centre line of the embankment with no (0mm) consolidation settlement at the same location 120 years after construction.
Learn more about the project.
We’d like to thank IBEX Consulting Engineers for sharing this work with us.
Discover our tried and tested ground movement software.