NAIL REINFORCEMENT MECHANISM OF COHESIVE SOIL SLOPES UNDER EARTHQUAKE CONDITIONS

Soil nails have been widely used to retain excavations and stabilize steep cutslopes. A series of dynamic centrifuge model tests were conducted on nail-reinforced and unreinforced slopes during an earthquake, with several influence factors, including the nail length, nail spacing, and the inclination of slope, taken into consideration. The unreinforced slope exhibited a progressive failure in the middle and lower parts though the global slip surface did not appear due to the earthquake, which was arrested by using the nail reinforcement. The nails changed the dynamic acceleration response of the slope during the earthquake. The deformation of the slope was significantly decreased by the nails within a nail-influence zone. This zone involved the slip surface of the unreinforced slope, and was almost completely independent on the layout of the nail-reinforcement when the nails had sufficient length. A point couple analysis, a strain analysis, and a uniformity analysis were carried out in an attempt to determine why nails can increase the stability of a slope. It was discovered that the nails forced the deformation of the slope to be more uniform and thus arrested possible strain localization under earthquake conditions. As such, it is suggested that increasing nail length or decreasing nail spacing can both improve the nail-reinforcement effect, and increase the stability level of a slope.