2nd International Balkans Conference on Challenges of Civil Engineering, BCCCE, 23-25 May 2013, Epoka University, Tirana, Albania.

A numerical study on pile application for slope stability

Hamza Gll1
1

Department of Civil Engineering, University of Gaziantep, Turkey

ABSTRACT This paper presents a numerical study that performs the stability of slope reinforced with pile in single, two and three row applications. The slope is made of a compacted fill over soft clay that underlies over stiff clay. The numerical analysis has been done by finite element method in two-dimension using PLAXIS. The results indicate that as the pile row increases, the factor of safety increases. In the single row of pile application, the factor of safety decreases as the slope is reinforced toward to the top of slope. Considering the factor of safety with economy, this study can adequately suggest to use either the single row pile at the toe of slope or two-row piles at the toe and middle. It is believed that the findings of this study contribute to the engineers performing slope stability analysis in practice. INTRODUCTION Slope stability is an important issue in geotechnical engineering. It is mainly affected by soil strength, slope geometry, groundwater table and external factors (such as load, precipitation, etc.). Stabilizing with pile is one of the improvement techniques that mechanically provide a resistance to slope system along the failure surface in particular for the problems coming from soft soils and heavy loading. Although the piles have been used in many situations to improve the slope stability, there have been still many concerns about them. The lateral loads coming from the soil movement produce bending moments and the deflections in the pile may cause failure of the structural system. The interaction between pile and soil is complicated due to its 3-dimensional behavior [1]. Numerous methods have been developed for the analysis of piled slopes [2]. Limit equilibrium is one of the common approaches used in previous studies. In this approach, the factor of safety of the piled slope is defined by the ratio of the resisting moment to the overturning moment acting on the potentially sliding mass. The resisting moment (due to shear strength of soil) and driving moment are obtained by applying some suggested methods such as ordinary method of slice. A procedure based on boundary element was used to find failure surface as well as the driving and resisting moments in the pile-slope system [3]. A different kind of limit analysis called the kinematic approach was used for the slope stability reinforced with piles. For the stability analysis of slope improved with pile, it was assumed that a lateral force and a moment could be applied at the depth of the potential failure surface [4]. A displacement method has been recently proposed to evaluate the response of piles due to a translational failure mode beneath an embankment slope [5]. Slope-pile systems are more appropriate for stiff soils and rocks. In the case of soft soil, there is a possibility that soft soil can move between piles. The piles that were not sufficiently penetrated into failure plane may present sliding of slope along another failure plane. It is reported that the pile application in 2 to 3 rows is usually successful for the slope stability.
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2nd International Balkans Conference on Challenges of Civil Engineering, BCCCE, 23-25 May 2013, Epoka University, Tirana, Albania.

The factors that affect the force to pile can be listed as soil properties, factor of safety of slope, geometry of slope, slip rate, pile diameter and length, etc. Pile locations, pile intervals and plan geometry of piles are fairly difficult in the applications. In the literature, in the cases of s(interval)/B(diameter)>3, it is expected to perform a single pile behavior. This ratio is reduced 0.5 to 0.75 for the piles that are applied in tangential [6]. The pile for the slope stabilization is mostly penetrated through the failure surface to the stable underlying soil. The pile-slope system mainly includes the design steps of evaluating the total shear force needed to increase to desired factor of safety of slope and calculating the maximum lateral force of pile from the sliding soil. This paper presents a numerical study that performs the slope stability analysis with pile application using finite element method. The failure mechanisms have been discussed for unreinforced slope and pile reinforced slope. The safety factors of slope-pile systems have been computed and the contribution of pile on the factor of safety has been evaluated. The study is believed to contribute to the engineers in practice attempting different pile configurations in slope stability. MATERIALS AND METHOD Materials The slope profile as shown in Fig.1 has been considered for the numerical study of slope-pile system in this paper. An embankment fill that is well compacted for engineering uses has been constructed on soft clay that underlies over stiff clay. The slope represents one portion of a highway embankment. This is a typical slope stability problem that has a potential sliding due to the soft layer located between two stiff layers. The asphalt (cover) layer is not included on the fill due to the simplicity solution of the problem. The fill carries a surcharge pressure due to the traffic loading that is recommended as 30kPa. The slope profile of the fill has the height of 10 m, the slope angle of 30 and the unit weight of 21kN/m3. The fill material is clayey gravel with greater than 15% sand (GC). The soft clay is a normally consolidated clay soil that has an angle of internal friction =20. The stiff clay is an overconsolidated clay which has the shear strength parameters of the cohesion c=30kPa and the angle of internal friction =30. The undrained soil conditions were assumed to be valid for the clay layers, and as for the fill, it is behaved by drained conditions. The elasticity modulus is empirically determined from the literature [7] on the basis of N 60 for the fill using Es=2500*OCR0.5+600*N60 and undrained shear strength for the clay using Eu=500*Su. It is assumed that the groundwater table is at the greater depth and good drainage conditions are ensured from the undesired effects of water. The soil properties together with the model parameters of numerical study are given in Table 1. Piles have been considered to be constructed in five cases in this study: i) case 1 at the toe of slope, ii) case 2 at the middle of slope, iii) case 3 at the top of slope, vi) case 4 two-row piles at the toe and middle of slope, and v) case 5 three-row piles at the toe, middle and top of slope. They in all five cases are penetrated 5m into the stiff clay. The pile is made of concrete with a diameter of 0.5m. It is modeled by means of the linear elastic material considering non-porous behavior. There are also some approaches modeling by a beam element using moment of inertia, but they are not considered in this study. The slope is studied with the pile reinforced for the cases separately, and compared to unreinforced case. The pile properties are shown in Table 2.

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2nd International Balkans Conference on Challenges of Civil Engineering, BCCCE, 23-25 May 2013, Epoka University, Tirana, Albania.

Figure 1 The slope profile of pile cases studied (each case is considered separately) Table 1 Soil Properties and parameters used in the numerical analysis Parameter Fill (GC) Soft clay Stiff clay Material Model Mohr-Coulomb Mohr-Coulomb Mohr-Coulomb Material behavior Drained Undrained Undrained Cohesion (c, kPa) 5 0 30 Angle of internal 40 20 30 friction () Undrained shear 50 200 strength (cu, kPa) Dry unit weight 20 16 18 3 (dry, kN/m ) Saturated unit weight 22 17 19 3 (sat, kN/m ) Permeability 1*10-4 1*10-8 1*10-8 (kx, m/s) Permeability 1*10-4 1*10-8 1*10-8 (ky, m/s) Youngs modulus 120000 25000 100000 (E, kPa) 0.3 0.35 0.35 Poissons ratio () Table 2 Pile properties Pile Linear elastic Non-porous 24 3*107 0.1

Parameter Material Model Material behavior Unit weight (, kN/m3) Youngs modulus (E, kPa) Poissons ratio ()

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2nd International Balkans Conference on Challenges of Civil Engineering, BCCCE, 23-25 May 2013, Epoka University, Tirana, Albania.

Numerical method The numerical analysis has been performed by 2D finite element method using PLAXIS software that is a usual method applied for geotechnical problems. A plain strain has been used for the finite element modeling of slope. It is known that the plane strain is used for the geometries with a (more or less) uniform cross section and corresponding stress-state and loading scheme over a certain length perpendicular to the cross section. The soil profile has been modeled using 15 nodded triangular elements. It is more powerful than the alternated 6-node triangle elements. The boundary conditions are defined by the standard fixities such that vertical geometry lines for which the x-coordinate is equal to the lowest or highest x-coordinate in the model to obtain a horizontal fixity. The material properties of soil and pile used for the numerical analysis have already been presented before (Table 1, Table 2). As shown from the tables that the material models of Mohr-Coulomb and linear-elastic have been applied for the soil and pile, respectively. The material behavior has been considered as the undrained and non-porous conditions, respectively for the soil and the pile. The initial stresses have been generated by a proper KO-value. Factor of safety (FS) of the slope stability has been evaluated by the numerical analysis. In the PLAXIS, the FS has been executed by reducing the strength parameters of the soil. This method is called as Phi-c reduction. In the Phi-c reduction approach, the strength parameters (, c) are successively reduced until failure of the structure occurs. The total multiplierMsf is used to define the value of the soil strength parameters at a given stage in the analysis given by the equation:

(1) Msf is set to 1.0 at the start of a calculation to set all material strengths to their unreduced values. Until failure occurs, the strength parameters are successively reduced automatically. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS The results of the numerical analysis that present a good impression of the failure mechanism of the slopes for the applied cases have been displayed in Fig.2. The factor of safety for each case has also been presented in Fig.2. The failure mechanisms are shown by the magnitudes of arrow and color shading shapes. They relatively give a good indication of failure mechanism. In the shading ones, the color from red to green represents a decrease in the magnitude of deformation within the failure mechanism. As shown from Fig.2, if the pile is constructed at the toe of slope, the deformations within the failure plane and toe are more reduced as compared with the other cases in single row application. In the application of case 2 (at the middle), right part of the pile-slope system is preserved well, however, left part toward toe of slope clearly presents intensive deformations that should be seriously considered for slope stability. In the application of case 3, the pile reinforcement seems to resist well to the deformations from surcharge, but it does not yield a sufficient contribution to the slope movement toward to the toe. These observations clearly indicate the superiority of case 1 among the single row cases, since it relatively prevents from the excessive deformations occurring within the failure surface. A good resistance to slope movement has also been displayed by two and three-row pile cases (cases 3-4), where some of the deformations have been carried by end of the piles differently from the single row application.
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2nd International Balkans Conference on Challenges of Civil Engineering, BCCCE, 23-25 May 2013, Epoka University, Tirana, Albania.

The observed failure mechanisms of slopes in Fig.2 generally produce different failure zones. However, it can be generally said that all shear failure surfaces can be almost modeled by the circular shear surfaces. The circular surfaces of the slopes would be very beneficial for the engineers to perform conventional geotechnical slope stability analysis. Because, it is known that circular surfaces are versatile in stability analysis such that they may be attempted in many different curved surfaces to model the failure mechanism in the field. It is shown from the shear surfaces that they are restricted at the toe of slope by Case1 and at the top of slope by Case3. It is observed from the shear surfaces that soft clay layer clearly becomes a potential slip surface for all cases along the stiff clay. It is also observed that the circular shear surfaces mostly do not penetrate into the lowermost (stiff clay) stratum, because the present stiff clay in the cases has shear strength significantly higher than the other layers. These findings of soil effect on slip surface compare well with the literature [6, 7]. It is worth to note that the potential slip effect of soft clay is relatively decreased when the slope is reinforced by the single row application at the middle part (Case 2) and by three-row application (Case 5). But, it should be noted that the stability should be assessed by overall considerations of all factor affecting to the slope. As for the factor of safety (Fig.2), all pile cases results in larger factor of safety than the native slope. It is obtained from the results of the single row pile application (Case1-3) that as the slope is reinforced toward to the top part, the factor of safety is decreased. On the other hand, the factor of safety certainly increases with increased pile row. Three-row pile application (case 5) results in largest factor of safety among all cases; it is followed by tworow application (case 4). It is clear that the cases 4-5 present relatively larger safety factor values as compared with the native slope and the single row reinforced ones. This is an expected result because the shear stresses along the failure plane are more resisted as the pile row increases. This may also indicate the authenticity of numerical analysis. Case 1 yields largest factor of safety among the single row application. The decrease in factor of safety occurs slightly between case 1 and case 2. In case 3, the factor of safety is approaching to the one of native slope. While case 1 and case 2 produce a moderate contribution to factor of safety for the slope stability, case 3 does not make a significant contribution to the stability. The reason for the small factor of safety due to case 3 may be explained that the pile at the toe provides a good lateral resistance to the right part, but left part of slope before toe still needs a reinforcement to shear stresses causing from soil weight of the slope. From the factor of safety, even though the largest stability is obtained by three-row pile application, economy of design should be seriously considered in practice. Therefore, the capability of the other pile applications, especially, case 1, case 2 and case 4 could be alternately taken into consideration for the slope reinforcement studied in this paper. The numerical method applied this paper has been limited to research by the material model (i.e., Mohr-Coulomb only) and no groundwater table. Thus, it can be extended to the effect of other material models (hardening soil, soft soil, etc.) and groundwater table on slope-pile application. This study has a lack of analytical verification of the numerical analysis by some conventional methods, which is recommended to be a separate investigation to readers. For the analytical calculation of the slope-pile systems, the literature [6] has included some solution approaches for determination of safety factor. It is reported that NAVFAC [8] recommends a simple method for calculation of safety factor. In this approach, the stability of the slope is determined for the circular failure plane using Swedish Slice Method by the following equation:

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2nd International Balkans Conference on Challenges of Civil Engineering, BCCCE, 23-25 May 2013, Epoka University, Tirana, Albania.

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2nd International Balkans Conference on Challenges of Civil Engineering, BCCCE, 23-25 May 2013, Epoka University, Tirana, Albania.

FS

Fig.2. Failure mechanism and factor of safety c' LR ( P uL) R tan 'T ' z

Wx

(2)

The descriptions of the parameters in Eq.2 can be found in the literature [6]. The factor of safety has been also determined by some simple slope-pile charts proposed by the literature [9]. CONCLUSION A numerical study has been performed for analyzing the slope stability reinforced with single, two and three- row piles. The results indicate that the safety factor of slope-pile system increases with the increased the row of pile. In the single row of pile application, it is found that the factor of safety decreases as the slope is reinforced toward to the top of slope. Considering the factor of safety with economy, this study can adequately suggest to use either the single row pile at the toe (case 1) or two-row piles at the toe and middle of slope (case 4) in practice. REFERENCES [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] Won, J.C. You, K., Jeong, S., Kim, S. (2005) Coupled effects in stability analysis of pile-soil systems. Comput.Geotech.,32, 304-315. Ito, T., Matsui, T., Hong, W.Y. (1979) Design method for the stability analysis of the slope with landing pier. Soils Found.,19(4), 43-57. Lee, C.Y., Hull, T.S., Poulos, H.G. (1995) Simplified pile-slope stability analysis. Comput.Geotech.17, 1-16. Ausilio, E., Conte, E., Dente, G. (2001). Stability analysis of slopes with piles.Comput.Geotech.,28, 591-611. Martin, G.R., Chen, C.Y. (2005) Response of piles due to lateral slope movement, Comput. Structure.,83, 588-598. Yldrm, S. (2002). Zemin ncelemesi ve Temel Tasarm. Birsen Yaynevi, stanbul. Coduto, D.P. (2001). Foundation Design Principles and Practices, 2nd ed. Prentice Hall. NAVFAC Design Manuals 7.1 and 7.2. (1988). Foundations and Earth Structures.Department of the Navy, Alexandria, VA. Hassiotis, S., Chameau, J. (1984). Stabilization of Slopes Using Piles : Interim Report. Publication FHWA/IN/JHRP-84/08.Joint Highway Research Project, Indiana Department of Transportation and Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana.doi: 10.5703/1288284314072.

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