A new analytical approach to estimate the seismic tensile force of geosynthetic reinforcement respect to the uniform surcharge of slopes

Abstract

This paper investigates the pseudo-static analysis of reinforced slopes with geosynthetics under the influence of the uniform surcharge to evaluate the maximum tensile force of reinforcements. The analytical approach has basically been used to develop the new practical procedure to estimate both tensile force and its distribution in the height of the slope. The base of developed relationships has been adapted from the conventional horizontal slice method. The limit equilibrium framework and the assumptions of log-spiral failure surface have directly been used for proposed analytical approach. A new analytical approach considering a single layer of non-cohesion soil and the influence of uniform surcharge has been extracted from the 5n equation and 5n unknown parameters. Results of the proposed method illustrated that the location of the surcharge, amount of internal friction and the seismic coefficient have the remarkable effect on the tensile force of reinforcement and might be 2 times increasing on it. Furthermore, outcomes show that the amount of tensile force has directly until 2 times related to the amount of slope angle and its height range. Likewise, it is observed that the highest value of the tensile force in case of slope degree more than 60-degree is observed on the lower layers. While in case of less degree the highest amount of tensile force has been reported on the middle layers and extremely depended to the seismic coefficient. Hence, it has been shown that the tensile force has increased more than 6 times compared with the static condition. The obtained results of the developed procedure were compared with the outcomes of the previous research. A good agreement has been illustrated between the amount results of developed relationships and outcomes of previous research. Maximum 20 and 25 percent difference have been reported in cases of static and seismic condition respectively.