Traces of Slip Surfaces in Reinforced Retaining Structures

Abstract

An experimental investigation was carried out to study the traces of slip surfaces in geotextile reinforced cohesive soil retaining structures when the slope angle changes from vertical to the slope of 63.4° (1H:2V) using centrifuge modeling technique. The results indicate that as the length of the reinforcement increases from unreinforced to a length equal to 0.75 of the height, the slip surface moves toward the face of the reinforced structure, regardless of the slope angle. At all times, however, the slip surfaces were behind the locations of failure surfaces of unreinforced models. In addition, as the slope angle decreases from vertical to the slope of 63.4°, the slip surfaces have a tendency to move toward the face of the slope, regardless of the length of reinforcement. The locations and traces of the slip surfaces obtained from physical tests were consistent with those from limit equilibrium analyses.