NEW DESIGN METHOD FOR REINFORCED SLOPED EMBANKMENTS

This paper is concerned with the stability of reinforced sloped embank ments. The effects of both vertical and horizontal loads are considere d, Different embankment geometries such as: spacing between reinforcem ents in the vertical, horizontal and transverse directions; embankment height; degree of slope and reinforcing elements length are studied, The tensile force distribution in the reinforcing elements, displaceme nts of the slope facing elements, displacements at the foundation-emba nkment interface and the change in stresses within the soil mass are a lso investigated, A total of five models including 50 experiments are tested to failure, The results from these tests are used to investigat e the improvements in the load-carrying capacity of the embankment due to the presence of reinforcement and to verify the finite element mod elling used in the parametric study. An extensive parametric study is conducted to examine the behaviour of the structure. A design equation for predicting the maximum tensile force within the embankment is pro posed. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.