A COMPUTER PACKAGE ON DESIGN OF GEOSYNTHETIC REINFORCED EARTH SLOPE

Abstract

Reinforced soil is the term used to describe a well-established technique based on the simple principle that soil stability can be improved by means of geosynthetic reinforcements. Reinforced earth slopes are a proven geotechnical innovation that greatly advances the technique of change in grade construction. Reinforced earth slope has now-a-days become very important and widely used structure in construction and widening of highways, embankments and other engineering works. Reinforced earth slopes are cost-effective alternatives for new construction where the cost of fill, right-of-way and other considerations may make a steeper slope desirable. This can be used for widening the roadways over existing flatter slopes without encroachment on existing right-of-ways and for repairing a slope failure. The reinforcement in the slopes is used to increase stability of the slope and to provide improved compaction at the edges of a slope. The increase in stability allows for construction of steepened slopes on firm foundations for new highways and as replacements for flatter unreinforced slopes and retaining walls. hi this present work a design method for reinforced earth slope has been described in detail and a computer package RESLOPE has been developed for its designing and drafting. This package is user friendly, interactive and uses graphics facility of Turbo C++ to display full details of reinforced earth slope. Different soil parameters and uniform surcharge loading have been accounted in the program. Provision has been made that either geogrids or strips may be used as reinforcement elements. Main features of developed package includes knowledge base which flashes on the user's screen enabling the user to make right decision and graphical outputs of stability checks, general views of reinforced earth slope and reinforcement details give clear picture to the user.