Internal stability analysis of geocell-reinforced slopes subjected to seismic loading based on pseudo-static approach

Abstract

Seismic stability analysis of geocell-reinforced slopes (GRSs), considering shear and moment strength in addition to tensile resistance for geocells, is a novel topic for which scarce studies are found in the literature. Despite few available studies, an analytical approach is presented in this study to investigate the seismic internal stability of GRSs, employing the pseudo-static method based on a limit state approach. Results are given in terms of conventional design charts representing the required total strength and critical length of geocells. The results show that with increasing the horizontal seismic acceleration (kh), the internal stability degenerates since the required strength and critical length of geocells increase. For GRSs subjected to greater kh, the effect of increasing the vertical seismic component (kv) on increasing the required strength and length of geocells is more considerable than those subjected to lower kh values. Parametric analyses are conducted, under various seismic conditions, to investigate the effect of increasing the geocell height and raising the number of geocell layers, leading to the reduction in the required strength and length of geocells. Such effects are found to be dependent on the parameters such as the intensity of seismic excitation, material properties and geometry of slope.