18/4/2019

Part 4: Design of
Reinforced Slope
with Geogrid
For CREaTE
by
Kim Har

RECAP

WHAT WE HAVE STUDIED RECAP OF WHAT WE HAVE

YESTERDAY? LEARNED?

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GEOGRIDS
Knitted Polyester Geogrids,
PVC coated
30kN/m x 30kN/m -
400kN/m x 50kN/m
Creep test is very important
and critical for slope repair

Agar-Quf Ziggurat
(1000 B.C.)

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History of Reinforced Earth Technology

Reinforcement layers

Others famous places

Wharf of port of
Great Wall of China Londinium (London)
(100 B.C.)
(200 B.C.)

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Geogrid
Fill reinforcement system has a long history and has
been around for thousand of years. The photo
clearly shows that the fill and reinforcement were
placed in layers. The vertical spacing varies with
height.
The modern fill reinforcement technology for
retaining wall construction was pioneered by
Henri Vidal, a French architect and engineer, in the
early 1960s.

Function of Geogrid.
– Prevent crocodile cracks and the mitigation
of vertical cracks into the course aggregate
zone.
– Stiffen and reinforce the pavement layer.
– Reinforcement of slope or wall system
– Basal Reinforcement for roads and railways

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Application of Geogrids
• Improve the stability of fill slope
• New embankment construction
• Slope remedial works
• Road widening projects
• Bunds for noise pollution
• Basal reinforcement road and highway
construction

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Basal Reinforcement
Georid

Ranau, Sabah, Malaysia

Non-woven geotextile

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Slope and Wall Reinforcement

Vertical and steep soil slopes can be

constructed by reinforcing the soil
with Geogrids and Reinforcement
Geotextiles.

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Reinforced Earth Slope

Geosynthetic Materials
1. Woven Geotextile
2. Geogrid Geosynthetic

Fill Material
Geosynthetic

Geosynthetic

Geosynthetic

Foundation Soil

Construction of a Steep Slope

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Slope Reinforcement
georid

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Reinforcement system
Nowadays fill reinforcement includes geosynthetic
reinforcement and metallic reinforcement fill in layers.
When reinforcements are placed in between the soil,
they make the reinforced soil strong in both tension
and compression.

In this chapter we will look into the principles, design

and the construction of fill reinforcement for reinforced
slope system.

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1. Principles of Geogrid reinforced slope system

• Slip surface divides the slope into an active zone and a stable
zone
• Geogrids have been successfully used to reinforce slopes and
maintain their stability
• The basic principle of geogrid reinforced slopes is that geogrid
reinforcement prevents the soil mass in the active zone from
sliding down by providing necessary tensile resistance and
resisting moment through its anchorage in the stable soil.
• Long and strong geogrid reinforcement as primary
reinforcement while short and weak reinforcement as
secondary. Geogrid-reinforced slopes have different types in
practice, mostly based on the type of facing ( as shown)
• During the design/analysis, all possible failure modes should
be examined.

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Advantages of Geosynthetics Reinforced Soil Structures

•Wide choice of facing systems

Gabion facing system Natural vegetated facing

Block wall facing system

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1. Principles of Geogrid reinforced slope system

• Limit equilibrium method is the most commonly used method
for the stability analysis of geogrid reinforced slopes.
• Leschinsky (1999) and Duncan and Wright (2005) provided a
comprehensive procedure for the design of steep slopes
reinforced by geosynthetics/geogrid using limit equilibrium
methods.
• Type of reinforced slope
• Geogrid reinforcement can be wrapped or not wrapped at the
slope face.
• Slope is defined as 450 and below whereas wall is above 450
• Common practice is that the vertical spacing of reinforcement
(primary/secondary) shall be no greater than 400mm with
primary reinforcements spaced no greater than 800mm when
secondary reinforcement is used. Vertical spacing for primary
reinforcement only shall be no greater than 800mm.

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Failure Modes
Geogrid reinforced slope have four possible failure modes:
1. Surficial failure 2. Internal failure
3. Compound failure and 4. Global failure

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Failure Modes
1. Surficial slope failure, mostly triggered by rainfall, is a
common problem for slopes due to poor compaction, loss of
cohesion, saturation and seepage force. Depth of failure <
1.2m.
2. Internal failure happens within the reinforced fill. This failure
may occur when the geogrid reinforcements are too weak or
too short for pull-out resistance.
3. Compound failure happens when the slip surface partially
cuts through the reinforced zone and the unreinforced zone.
4. Global failure, also called deep-seated failure, is one of the
major concerns when a reinforced slope is constructed on a
weak foundation or a toe slope. Global slope failure, has a
critical slip surface beyond the reinforced soil mass.
Solution to No. 4 replace the soft ground or to extend the
geogrid reinforcement.

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Design and Analysis

Performance Requirements:
1. Factors of safety against internal, surficial,
compound , translational and global failures under
static loading should be greater than 1.3 to 1.5.
Higher factors of safety should be used if a slope
supports sensitive structures,
2. Factors of safety against internal, surficial,
compound and global failures under seismic loading
should be greater than 1.1
3. Post construction settlement should be based on
project requirement.

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Internal Stability
• Internal stability analysis assumes slip surfaces
passing through geogrid reinforcement. Both
Bishop’s and Spencer’s methods can be used for this
purpose.
• Geogrid reinforcement can have three different
failure modes in soil as shown on the next page
namely:
• a) tensile rupture
• b) front pull-out (pull-out from face)
• c) rear pull-out (pull-out from stable soil)

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Internal stability

a) Tensile rupture b) Front Pull-out c) Rear pull-out

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Internal stability

Percent coverage of geosynthetic/geogrid reinforcement

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Internal stability
The pull-out resistance of geogrid reinforcement can be
estimated by the following equation:
Tpo = 2F*αse Ϭ’z La Rc Eqn -10-3
where
F* = pull-out resistance (friction bearing interaction)
= tan δ = Ci tanφ and
δ = interface friction angel between geogrid and soil.
Ci = interaction coefficient typically ranging from 0.6 to
1.0 and 0.67 by default value suggested by Berg et al.
(2009). φ is the friction angle of soil.
αse = a scale effect correction factor, 0.6 for geotextile and 0.8
for geogrid as suggested by Holtz et al. (2008).
Ϭ’z = normal stress apply on the geogrid reinforcement.

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Internal stability
The pull-out resistance of geogrid reinforcement can be
estimated by the following equation:
Tpo = 2F*αse Ϭ’z La Rc Eqn -10-3
Where
La = anchorage length of the geosynthetic reinforcement (i.e. ,
Laf for the front pullout or Lar for the rear pullout as shown in
the earlier slide.
Rc = percent coverage of the geogrid area over a tributary area,
(Rc = (Ag/A) x 100% as shown in the diagram earlier.

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Design Parameters and Procedure

Design Parameters:
Many factors influence the performance and design of MSE
walls. Figure 2.1 shows most of the influence factors, which
include:
• Geometry of the wall: wall height, H, top slope height, h, wall
batter, ω, top slope angle, β, wall embedded depth, D.

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Design Parameters and Procedure

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Design Parameters and Procedure

Figure 2.1
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Design Formulae
When the batter of the wall is small (i.e. less than 100), however,
Rankine’s coefficient of external active earth pressure may be
used instead;

When the batter of the wall is smaller than 100, the coefficient
of internal active earth pressure can be further simplified into:

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External Stability Analysis

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External Stability Analysis

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External Stability Analysis

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External Stability Analysis

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External Stability

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External stability

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Design Example 2.2

A vertical geosynthetic-reinforced MSE wall is shown in
Figure 2.2. The reinforced fill, retained fill and
foundation soil have the same properties as shown in
the Figure 2.2. The traffic loading on top of the wall is
15kPa. The AASHTO design method is used to
determine the required tensile strength of each layer.
Calculate the factors of safety for
a) internal stability (pullout) and
b) external stability (sliding, overturning and bearing
failure).

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Design Example 2.2

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The Solution

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The Solution

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The Solution

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The Solution

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The Solution

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The Solution

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The solution

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The Solution

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The Solution

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The Solution

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The Solution

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The Solution

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The Solution

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The Solution

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The Solution

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The Solution

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Completed project

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Slope Reinforcement
GeoGrid

Damansara School, Malaysia

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Slope Stabilization Works at the Gap in Fraser’s Hill,

Malaysia using Geogrid Reinforcement.

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Reinforced Geogrid
Wall

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Design Analysis for

slope

Basic requirement

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Basic Requirement.
1. Get the SI ready for the designer
2. Type of backfill material to be
used(Laterite, sand or aggregates)
3. Cohesiveness and friction angle of the soils
to be considered.
4. Base information and if no SI values, check
if there is any JKR probe being done.
5. Profile of the areas, its length and height,
degree of slope, existing x-sectons, and
what type of system you want.

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Part 4: Design of Reinforced slope with

Geogrid
R e i n f o r c i n g t h e Wo r l d w i t h G e o g r i d

EENNDD OOFF PPRREESSEENNTTAATTIIOOnn

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