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Global Stability Analysis of Reinforced Earth Wall Using Basal Reinforcement

Article · August 2020

DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.12847838

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IJSART - Volume 6 Issue 8 – AUGUST 2020 ISSN [ONLINE]: 2395-1052

Global Stability Analysis of Reinforced Earth Wall

Using Basal Reinforcement
Aqueeb Nadeem Inamdar
Dept of Civil Engineering
College of Engineering, Pune

Abstract- The analysis of global stability of retaining Basically, there are three types of slope failures in the field of
structures has become a crucial aspect to consider before geotechnical engineering. Rotational slips (circular and non-
construction. Global stability relies on geometry of soil and is circular), translational slips, and compound slip. The rotational
primarily dependent on soil conditions.Geotextiles with high soil failure solely depends on geometrical arrangement of soil
tensile strength can contribute to the load carrying capacity of and other factors of soil due to its geographic location.
soil that is poor in tension and good in compression and thus Rotational soil failure occurs behind and beneath the fall,
help improve global stability of structures. therefore, global stability analysis is important before
construction.
This project is focusses on improving the safety
factor of the reinforced earth wall by providing ParaWeb Geogrids
Geogrids between the soil layers as reinforcement and
conducting a Global Stability Analysis on Slide 5.0 software. Early, in 1982, Frank Brian Merce invented geogrids.
The model is designed on the slope stability software that Later, geogrids were popularized among engineering
depicts 8 layers of soil having different soil properties. community by a conference held at the United Kingdom in the
ParaWeb Geogrid strips are provided between two walls and year 1984.Geogrids are manufactured under three different
compacted after each layer. Each strip is having a specific processes like extruding, knitting or weaving, and by welding
tensile strength and is on a measured height. On the top-most and extrusion. Based on the direction ofstretching, the
layer of the soil, a Uniformly Distributed Load (UDL) is geogrids are grouped as uni-axial, bi-axial and tri-axial
applied a basal reinforcement is placed at the bottom. The geogrids. Use of geogrids category in structural applications
research paper shows how the safety factor can be improved gives promising results in terms of strength and durability. In
by changing the tensile strengths of reinforcements in an earth particular, geogrid reinforcements in structural components is
wall so as to make it safe for construction and thus, save the a new technology which increases the overall behavior of
structure from unforeseeable hazards. structure in terms of improved load carrying capacity and
reduced deflection.
Keywords- Global Stability analysis, reinforced earth wall,
geogrids, geotextile, safe bearing capacity, basal Slide 5.0
reinforcement, retaining structures.
Slide 5.0 is a comprehensive slope stability analysis
I. INTRODUCTION software. It has the capability to determine slope failures by
using probabilistic approach and analyzing different scenarios.
The behavior and design of geosynthetic-reinforced In this project, this software has been used to calculate the
embankments and other retaining structures over soft soil have global minimum of a slope and determine the factor of safety
attracted considerable attention in both practice and the of a retaining structure. A wide range of parametric analysis
literature. Among geosynthetics, grid type geosynthetics can be done.
reinforcements were found to be more effective than the sheet
type reinforcement. Use of geosynthetic materials like II. MATERIALS AND THEORY
geogrids, geocells, geomembranes, etc. for reinforcing
purposes allows us to replace the massive concrete retaining Model
walls with reinforced earth structures that have numerous
advantages in realization of the structure on soft soils having The model of this project, as shown in the figure, has
low bearing capacity. Reinforced earth structures also resist layers of soil having different properties. There are two walls
the differential settlement very well. Design of such structures and between them are ParaWeb geogrids of different lengths
include verification of global and internal stability checks. and tensile strengths at specific heights. These layers are
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compacted with RS fill material after laying each geogrid Table 2 Soil Type
strip.

Figure 1 Model

The geogrid strips have hooks on either sides and Generally, clays are naturally occurring material
pinned to the walls from both ends. Height of Reinforced primarily composed of fine-grained minerals, show plasticity
Earth wall is 8 meters. when mixed withappropriate amount of moisture and become
hard when dried or fired. Das indicated the characteristics of
Soil Properties clay, which included:[2]

As we can see in the model above, there are 8 layer a) Small particle size (usually smaller than 0.002 mm)
of soils. The following table showsunit weight, cohesion, and b) Net negative charge
friction of all the soil layers. c) Show plasticity when mixed with moisture

Table 1 Soil Properties ParaWeb Geogrid Strips

ParaWeb strips that are used are having planar

structures and consists of a core made of high tenacity
polyester yarn tendons wrapped in a sheet of polythene. The
strips are manufactured primarily for reinforcement
applications in combination with concrete wall facing panels.

Figure 2 ParaWeb Geogrid

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IJSART - Volume 6 Issue 8 – AUGUST 2020 ISSN [ONLINE]: 2395-1052

Each geogrid strip attached and compacted in layers have the

following tensile strengths.

Table 3 ParaWeb Tensile Strength

Table 5 Basal Reinforcement

III. CALCULATIONS
Table 4 ParaWeb Strip Lengths
Safe Bearing Capacity

All calculations are carried out as per Indian Standards (IS)

6403-1981.

Maximum Design Section = 8 m

Carriage way width = 12 m
Dead Load(DL) + Live Load(LL) = 24 kN/m
Block width, B = 6.8 m
Eccentricity, e = 0.71 m
Effective width, B-2e = 5.38 (As per BS-8006)
Pressure at base of wall= 289.76 kNmm2
Required qsafe = 28.976 t/m2

Following are the shear parameter of the soil of the top layer.

C = 35.0075 kN/m2(Considering 2/3 C)

F = 0o(Considering {tan-1(0.67tanՓ)})
Basal Reinforcement g = 20 kN/m3
Df = 1 m
The ParaWeb reinforced wall rests on a replacement For F = 0o
soil having a better bearing capacity. The depth of Nc = 5.14
replacement soil is 2 meters. At the bottom, basal Nq = 1.0
reinforcement is provided to avoid differential settlement of Ng = 0.0
the earth wall. Safety factor of the structure depends upon the
tensile strength of geotextile material provided as basal Depth Factor:
reinforcement. The two bottom-most layers shown in the
figure 3 shows basal reinforcement. dc =1+ 0.2(Df/B) (NF)1/2 = 1.0372
dq = dγ=1 for F<100
dq = dγ = 1+0.1(Df/B) (Nø)1/2 for Ø>100
= 1.0000

Shape Factor:

Sc = Sq = Sγ = 1 (For Strip Footing)

Inclination Factor:
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IJSART - Volume 6 Issue 8 – AUGUST 2020 ISSN [ONLINE]: 2395-1052

ic = iq = iγ = 1 (For vertical Wall) When the basal reinforcement layer in the

qult = C NcScdcic + q(Nq-1)Sqdqiq + 0.5 g B' NγSγdγiγ W' replacement soil is completely removed, the factor of safety is
= 186.63 kN/m2 0.822. As we can see in the figure above, the pale yellow color
qsafe = 138.2 kN/m2= 13.82 t/m2 of numerous slip circle shows that the RE wall is not safe.
Factor of Safety (FOS) = 1.35
Factor of safety of 0.822 also defines that the global
qsafe is less than required value. Therefore, it is UNSAFE. minimum of all the analysed rotational slip circles.

The following figure represents the required factor of safety One Layer of 25 kN/m
for reinforced earth walls.
Further, if we provide one layer of basal
reinforcement having tensile strength of 25 kN/m, the safety
factor increases to 0.857.

Figure 5 Basal Reinforcement - 1 Layer - 25 kN/m

Figure 3 Safety Factor Chart
One Layer of 100 kN/m
IV. ANALYSIS
The FOS increases further to 0.960 when the tensile
The global stability analysis of the model is done on strength of basal reinforcement is increases, as shown below.
a slope stability software, Slide 5.0. The software analyses the
model of the RE wall as per soil conditions, soil reinforcement
tensile strengths, and tensile strength of basal reinforcement. It
gives the global minimum, that is, factor of safety by
analyzing all the slip circles.

Without basal reinforcement

Figure 6Basal Reinforcement - 1 Layer - 100 kN/m

Two Layers of 100 kN/m

The structure is starting to become safe as we

increase the tensile strengths and simultaneously the number
Figure 4 Without Basal Reinforcement of layers of basal reinforcements. The FOS has further
increased to 1.093 when two layers of basal reinforcements
having 100 kN/m tensile strengths each are added.
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IJSART - Volume 6 Issue 8 – AUGUST 2020 ISSN [ONLINE]: 2395-1052

Tensile strength of basal reinforcement and safety

factor are directly proportional to each other. When the basal
reinforcement was removed and the wall was resting on
replacement soil, the factor of safety was 0.822. As per BS
8006-1:2010, minimum factor of safety should be 1.3,
therefore, there was a necessity of basal reinforcement having
a high tensile strength so as to make the structure stable.
Adding a PET High Strength woven geotextile of 25 kN/m
tensile strength increased the bar of safety factor from 0.822 to
2.337.

Alternatively, the experiment also articulated that

Figure 7 Basal Reinforcement - 2 Layers - 100 kN/m
providing two basal reinforcements of 100 kN/m or 200 kN/m
each will let us achieve the required safety factor.
Two Layers of 200 kN/m
Basal reinforcement not only helps to stabilize the
structure by increasing the layer of high tensile strength but
also enhances uniform settlement of the soil in foundation.

Providing higher grade reinforcements in

construction will significantly solve the problems of global
stability of RE walls and embankments.

REFERENCES

[1] Jewell, R.A, Reinforced Soil Walls Analysis And

Behavior. In: Jarret, P.M., Mcgown, A. (Eds.), The
Figure 8Basal Reinforcement - 2 Layers - 200 kN/m Application Of Polymeric Reinforcement In Soil
Retaining Structures.Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1987,
Improved FOS Pp. 365–408.
[2] Jozef Vlcek, “Internal Stability Analyses Of Geosynthetic
Reinforced Retaining Walls”, XXIII R-S-P Seminar,
Theoretical Foundation Of Civil Engineering (23RSP)
(Tfoce 2014).
[3] Das, B., “Principles Of Foundation Engineering”,
Cengage Learning, 2015.
[4] S. Balaji, S. Vinodhkumar, R.G. Ridhuvarsine,
“Applications And Performance Of Geogrids In
Structures”, IRJTE, Volume-8 Issue-4, November 2019.
[5] M. Ward, “The Orientation Of Polymers To Produce High
Performance Materials” Proc. Of The Symp. On Polymer
Figure 9 Improved FOS Grid Reinforcement In Civil Eng., Institution Of Civil
Engineers, UK., 1984.
V. RESULTS& CONCLUSION

The Reinforced Earth wall modeled in Slide 5.0 slope

stability analysis software will help in understanding slope
failures before construction starts. The contribution of
geotextiles and geogrids used as reinforcing agents in soil is
very significant. Among lakhs of slip circles, as depicted in
interpretation images, the software accurately determines the
lowest Safety Factor, that is, Global Minimum.

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