Displacement characteristic of landslides reinforced with flexible piles: field and physical model test

Abstract

A field monitoring system was established in an active river bank landslide in the Three Gorges area, China, and a consecutive monitoring for about 5 years were conducted to understand the displacement characteristics of flexible piles and the surrounding soil. It was found that piles deformed elastically under reservoir operation, and the soil in front of piles was gradually separated from piles. The movement of the pile heads exceeded that of the soil between and behind piles. This phenomenon was further studied by a large-scale physical model test to gain insights into the pile-soil interaction. The displacement relationship between pile heads and the surrounding soil is in good agreement with the field data. The physical model test shows that the deformation process of pile-reinforced landslides can be divided into two stages: firstly, when the piles head movement exceeds soil movement, the soil arching is mainly affected by the deflection of the piles, the arches between and behind piles bent upwards; but when the soil movement exceeds piles head movement, the arches near the upslope and downslope bent downwards and upwards, respectively. Furthermore, the different deformation of two adjacent piles and the pile stiffness influenced the arch’s shape and formation; the flexible piles exhibit great coordinated deformation with the landslide, and caused the soil arch on the downslope.