Experimental and Numerical Study of Pile-Stabilized Slopes Under Surface Load Conditions

This paper is a comprehensive analysis on various experimental and numerical studies on slopes. Small-scale physical modeling of slopes under surcharge loads was performed on loose sand slopes. Digital images were captured during the incremental loading from the model’s side. Particle image velocimetry and 3D numerical model were applied to investigate the slope under surcharge loading; several important factors that control pile performance are investigated. Safety factors and location of critical failure surfaces of various reinforced and unreinforced slopes are obtained and compared. The results shows, the 3D failure surface shape in front of the piles is triangular for stabilized homogenous slopes, which is different from its conical shape in laterally loaded piles. This paper also analyzes the effects of soft bound interlayer, soil properties, pile spacing, pile position, and surcharge distance on the safety factor and slip surface shape of the stabilized and non-stabilized slopes. The results indicate that the distance of soft soil layer from ground surface and its horizontal direction angle strongly influence the optimum location of the piles. The numerical modeling results show that increasing the distance between the piles prevents the arching phenomenon from developing, and instead, increases the failure volume in the slope.