Effect of Soil Slope on Failure Mechanism of Soil-Nailed Structures by Aluminum Nails and Bamboo Nails

Abstract

In the present day scenario, improvement of ground is necessary in various occasions due to wide range of construction requirements. Various ground improvement techniques have been developed over the past few years. Increasing the load carrying capacity by inserting steel bars generally termed as soil nails is one of the effective techniques. These are mostly used in improvement of soil slopes. Wide range of materials can be used as soil nails. In the present study, hollow aluminum tubes and bamboos were used as soil nails for improving the ground characteristics. Model tests were performed for soil slope with different conditions of nail inclination. Further, these test results are compared with unreinforced soil. Parameters considered for the study are nail inclination and soil slope. Three nail inclinations are considered for the present study; they are 0°, 15°, and 30° with horizontal axis and two soil slopes they are 45° and 60°. Constant parameters considered for the study are soil, height, nail length, and nail pattern. The results obtained are compared with the conventional unreinforced soil slope for each case and curves for load versus settlement were developed for the same. From experimental results, soil slope with 0° nail inclination with horizontal axis gives the maximum load carrying capacity in all the cases, followed by 15° nail inclination with horizontal axis and then 30° nail inclination with horizontal axis.