Highway embankments are important structural elements in modern road infrastructure. If such a construction is built on cohesive low-permeability soils, it is necessary to perform a prediction of long-term settlements and excess pore pressures. The paper presents a numerical analysis of an instrumented embankment constructed in the Czech Republic using the finite element method. Two alternative constitutive models were employed throughout the analysis: standardly used linear elastic perfectly plastic model and elastoplastic model with volumetric and shear hardening with stress-dependent stiffness. A construction sequence was modelled in detail including durations of partial construction stages. Both the settlements of subsoil (in short-term and long-term conditions) and excess pore pressures measured in multiple depths were evaluated and compared with predictions. Results employing a more complex constitutive model show a reasonably good agreement with measurement both in terms of settlements and pore pressures. The application of a perfectly plastic constitutive model leads to an overestimation of settlements.

embankment; settlement; excess pore pressures; finite element method; elastoplasticity