Load-Bearing Behaviour of Geosynthetic Reinforced Soil Bridge Abutment for Railways with Waste Coal OB as Backfill Soil: Model Tests

Back-to-back MSE walls are a novel use of reinforced soil technology, and they are frequently implemented for bridge approaches and width-restricted highway and railway embankments. Urbanization has, however, led to an increase in the construction of transportation infrastructures. An investigation on model back-to-back MSE walls supporting railways has been carried out on a strong clay foundation. The foundation soil was clay with the desired shear strength. The model was conducted with a scale of 1/10th supporting railway tracks. Geogrid was used as a reinforcement, and wooden blocks were used as modular blocks for wall facings. The effects of different overlapping methods and distance between both walls on wall behavior have been evaluated. The scarcity of usable natural backfill soil for construction has been an alarming concern. Thus the recycled waste coal mine over dump was used as subballast/backfill soil. The coal mine overburden dump was used as a sustainable alternative to natural backfill/subballast. Cyclic loading simulating train loadings have been simulated in the model tests. Connected case of the model test was conducted in the laboratory. A finite element comparison of the model tests has also been conducted. A parametric study was carried out on back-to-back MSE walls subjected to heavy axle loads. Artificial intelligence-based ensemble models were used to predicted the geogrid tensile forces obtained from the parametric study.