Settlement Characteristics of Cement Fly-Ash Gravel Pile-Plate Composite Foundation of High-Speed Railway

Field tests on settlement characteristics were carried out on the cement fly-ash gravel (CFG) pile-plate composite foundation on Beijing-Xuzhou section of Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway. The settlements of the piles and the soil between piles were measured and analyzed. The results show that the settlement-time dependency experienced three phases: rapid development phase, stable development phase and stable phase. Therefore, surcharge preloading was necessary to reduce the settlement after construction. The finite element software Plaxis was used to calculate the deformations of the pile top and the soil between piles at the embankment center, as well as the settlements of CFG pile reinforcement area and the underlying stratum under surcharge preloading. The calculation results and the field test results were compared and analyzed. Both the results show that the settlement of the composite foundation mainly occured in underlying stratum. The settlement characteristics of pile-plate composite foundation under high embankment are also concluded.