Numerical study on stability analysis of geocell reinforced slopes by considering the bending effect

Geocell reinforced soil may be used in many areas of geotechnical engineering, however, there is little information on analysis of the behavior of geocell reinforced slopes. Due to the height of the geocell, the geocell-reinforced mattress more likely provides a beam or plate effect than a planar membrane effect. The purpose of this paper is to use beam model to simulate the geocell behavior as a flexible slab foundation which can carry both bending and membrane stresses for stability analysis of geocell reinforced slopes. In addition, the interface resistance between the geocell–soil was considered. The Young's modulus of geocell encased soil was obtained from the elastic modulus of the unreinforced soil and the tensile modulus of the geocell reinforcement using an empirical equation. Parametric studies of geocell reinforced slope are carried out by varying placement depth of the geocell layer, number of geocell layers, vertical spacing between reinforcement layers, length, thickness and Young's modulus of the geocell reinforcement. The influence of slope geometry, shear strength properties and soil compaction on the behavior of geocell reinforced slope is also discussed. The obtained results show that geocell reinforcement acts as a wide slab and thus it can restrain the failure surface from developing and redistribute the loads over a wider area. Therefore, under the geocell placement, the lateral deformation and shear strain values of the slope considerably decrease. Furthermore, the effective placement of geocell reinforcements is found to be between the middle of the slope and the middle of critical failure surface of the unreinforced slope.