Simplified evaluation on the stability level of pile-reinforced slopes

Abstract

The stability method was investigated to evaluate the stability of slopes reinforced with stabilizing piles that have become widely used as a reinforcement measure for a diverse range of slopes. A series of centrifuge model tests was conducted to investigate the three-dimensional failure behavior of pile-reinforced slopes, and four primary failure modes were summarized accordingly. A simplified slice method was proposed to analyze the stability levels of pile-reinforced slopes on the basis of an equivalent model that was devised to capture the three-dimensional pile effects. The proposed method was confirmed to be effective in evaluating the stability levels of pile-reinforced slopes with different failure modes by comparing its predicted results with the observations from centrifuge model tests. The method was easily added to the programs of previous limit equilibrium methods without requiring any additional parameters. The method was applied to the real-world pile reinforcement design for a dyke slope. The analysis results showed that the pile layout significantly influenced the safety factor and the critical slip surface of the reinforced slope. There was a pile arrangement zone for the slope in which the piles had a small contribution to the increase of the safety factor, and the zone provided an important reference for the pile reinforcement design.