Economical Design of Reinforced Slope Using Geosynthetics

Slope failures triggered by earthquakes are one of the most important geotechnical earthquake hazards that can cause severe damage to road/rail embankments, bridge abutments and dams. In the present paper, a road embankment of height 5 m is designed for Roorkee region using locally available soil as per the Indian Standards Specifications. Seismic slope stability analysis is also carried out to ensure the safety of the constructed or designed embankment under seismic loading appropriate to the considered region. The factor of safety obtained is unsatisfactory and hence there was need of reinforcement. Geosynthetics used for reinforcement include geotextiles and geogrids. Geosynthetics aims to ensure strength, stability and serviceability over its intented life span. To assess slope stability of reinforced slope, a single soil slope was analysed using Geostudio 2004 to estimate factor of safety under static and dynamic conditions. This study proposes a geotechnical stable slope embankment and also, the economical design using geosynthetics in both static and dynamic loading conditions which can be of great help in practical applications of geotechnical earthquake engineering.