Predicting the Stability of Riverbank Slope Reinforced with Columns Under Various River Water Conditions

A numerical analysis on the stability of soil-cement column-reinforced riverbank along a river delta region in Viet Nam is presented in this paper. The numerical analyses based on the limit equilibrium method (LEM) were performed to assess the safety factor of the column-reinforced riverbank system under various river water level (RWL) conditions. Several factors influencing the riverbank slope stability including the position, length, quantity of soil-cement columns, and RWL changes were investigated. The simulated results showed that the riverbank stability is improved with an increase in the column quantity and the column length when subjected to a constant RWL. Moreover, the predicted results by LEM indicated that the column location and the RWL change significantly influence the stability of riverbank with column reinforcement. The column location between the middle and the slope toe had a significant improvement of the riverbank slope stability, where an initial drawdown of RWL resulted in a notable reduction of the riverbank slope safety factor. These factors should be taken into consideration in the design of a riverbank slope, reinforced with columns, under variable RWL. It is worth mentioning that the use of soil-cement column-reinforced riverbank could be a practical and possible engineering countermeasure to prevent a steep riverbank slope under RWL variations from sliding failure.