Stability assessment of soil-nailed slopes using the homogenisation approach

Abstract

This study aims to evaluate the stability of the soil-nailed slope using an improved discretisation-based failure model in the framework of the upper-bound limit analysis theorem and the homogenisation approach. The improved discretisation-based failure model generated from the slope crest is first proposed by using the discretisation technique. Based on the homogenisation approach, a failure criterion for reinforced soils is established with considering the possible tensile failure and pull-out failure of soil nails. The proposed failure criterion is then incorporated into the improved slope failure model to determine the factor of safety (FoS) of the reinforced slope by using a method integrated the upper-bound limit analysis theorem and the strength reduction technique. The proposed method is validated by comparing with existing solutions and numerical results, showing that the proposed method is an effective approach to investigate the stability of reinforced slopes, especially for the cases with high reinforcement density. The effects of model parameters on the slope stability are finally presented.

Keywords:

• Soil-nailed slope
• upper-bound limit analysis theorem
• homogenisation approach
• failure criterion for reinforced soils
• factor of safety

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

All data, models, and code generated or used during the study appear in the published article.

Additional information

Funding

The first author thanks the financial support from the program of China Scholarship Council (No. 202006370322). The support from the National Key R&D Program of China (2017YFB1201204) is also greatly appreciated.