Optimal Location of Piles in Stabilizing Slopes Based on a Simplified Double-Row Piles Model

Abstract

Embedding single-row piles is often adopted to stabilize slopes in engineering practice. However, for large-scale and complex slopes, single-row piles might not be able to stabilize the slope; rather, double-row piles, even multirow piles, should be adopted. Currently, the optimal locations of double-row stabilizing piles considering local instability of the slope have rarely been studied. In this paper, a simplified analytical model used to analyze double-row pile stabilized slopes is proposed, where the local failure of the slope above the first row of piles is considered. Through the kinematic approach of limit analysis combined with the strength reduction technique, the required resistance forces provided by double-row piles respectively are derived for different pile locations denoted by the rotational angle. Moreover, a framework is developed for analyzing the optimal locations of multirow piles considering multistage potential slip surfaces. The results of an illustrative example are presented, and the reasonableness of the proposed method is verified. It is concluded that the optimal locations of double-row piles lie within middle-lower part of the corresponding stabilized part of the slope. Finally, discussion illustrates the influences of the seismic effects and soil shear strength parameters on the derived optimal pile locations. This study provides novel scientific insight into the optimized design of stabilizing pile locations in engineering practice.