Soil nailing for slope stabilization: an overview

This work is generally situated within a major geotechnical project aimed to delineat high-risk landslide zones in the Middle Rif region of Morocco, particularly between AlJebha and Al Hoceima. it aims to provide designers with a practical guide for using soil nails in slope stabilization. Soil nailing is a proven technique used to stabilize various types of soils, whether cohesive or noncohesive, with par- ticular effectiveness in granular soils. Key design parameters include nail spacing, which should be optimized based on the nature of the soil, and nail inclination, generally angled downward to maximize shear resistance. Besides The anchor- age length of nails in the stable (passive) zone of the soil is crucial to ensuring their effectiveness. Moroever The interaction between soil and nail is influenced by phenomena such as soil dilation and type of nail wheither are conventional nail or helical nail. which affects the pull-out resistance. Water saturation of the soil reduces friction at the soil-nail interface, compromising overall slope stability. Additionally, seismic events increase the stresses on the nails, necessitating spe- cific seismic modeling to assess their behavior under dynamic loads finally The mesh size in numerical modeling plays a significant role in determining the accu- racy of the safety factor (SF). The aforementioned recommendations concerning the design parameters of slope stabilization using soil nails—specifically nail incli- nation, length, type (conventional or helical), and the effect of seismic action and the mesh size—were applied to a concrete case study on the Boualma slope, located in Al Hoceima within the Middle Rif region of Morocco. This implemen- tation aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of this recommendations in improving the safety factor.