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Lookup NU author(s): Akram (PGR) Abd, Professor Stefano Utili
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND).
Currently, geosynthetic reinforcements for slopes are calculated assuming the ground strength to bepurely frictional, i.e. without any cohesion. However, accounting for the presence of even a modestamount of cohesion could allow using locally available cohesive soils as backfills to a greater extent andless overall reinforcement. But cohesive soils are subject to the formation of cracks that tend to reduceslope stability so their presence has to be accounted for in the design of the slope reinforcement. In thepaper, limit analysis was employed to derive a semi-analytical method for uniform c f slopes thatprovides the amount of reinforcement needed as a function of ground cohesion, tensile strength, angle ofshearing resistance and of the slope inclination. Both climate induced cracks as well as cracks that formas part of the slope collapse mechanism are accounted for. Design charts providing the value of therequired reinforcement strength and embedment length are plotted for both uniform and linearlyincreasing reinforcement distributions.From the results, it emerges that accounting for the presence of cohesion allows significant savings onthe reinforcement to be made, and that cracks are often significantly detrimental to slope stability sothey cannot be overlooked in the design calculations.
Author(s): Abd A, Utili S
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Geotextiles and Geomembranes
Year: 2017
Volume: 45
Issue: 6
Pages: 627-641
Print publication date: 01/12/2017
Online publication date: 05/09/2017
Acceptance date: 08/08/2017
Date deposited: 29/09/2017
ISSN (print): 0266-1144
Publisher: Elsevier
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geotexmem.2017.08.004
DOI: 10.1016/j.geotexmem.2017.08.004
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