Economic Analysis of Reinforced Slopes Using Slope/W for Different Boundary Conditions

Soil slopes can be either natural or manmade. Design and study of soil slopes involve a critical activity i.e. analyzing its stability. Ascertaining the stability can help preventing a slope failure and also help in redesign of failed slope. It involves identifying the critical failure surface approximately and determining corresponding factor of safety. Stability of slope is ascertained by means of factor of safety to a slope’s critical failure surface. Slope failures caused by landslide are one of the most important geotechnical hazards that can cause severe damage to important structures and human lives. With advent of software programming, computer modeling, analyzing and examining slope stability problems for the different analytical methods developed has become an easy task. A slope of height 5 m is analyzed for Dhule district of Maharashtra region using locally available soil using a renowned geotechnical slope stability software Slope/W considering static condition in the present study. A dry and partially saturated slope stability study is also conducted to validate the slope's safety in a flooded situation. The observed factor of safety is lacking; thus, strengthening was required by reinforcement. Two different tensile strength geotextiles were used as reinforcement material which aims to ensure stability, safety and economy over its life span. Several models were analyzed and the research findings for the above data were compared. Slope’s factor of safety changes in boundary conditions from dry to partly saturated to unreinforced to reinforcement for a given slope configuration. This study recommended a stable and economical reinforced slope using geotextile in both dry and partly saturated conditions which can be of great help to prevent the failure.