BEHAVIOUR OF GEOCELL REINFORCED SLOPES UNDER DYNAMIC CONDITIONS

Abstract

The forces of nature can have a powerful effect on steep slopes, river banks, spillways, embankments and other exposed areas. Earthquake induced ground shaking is one of the most frequent causes of slope failures. Earthquakes with a very small magnitude may trigger failure in susceptible slopes. It takes an effective engineered solution to prevent the movement of soils caused by static, dynamic, hydro-dynamic and gravitational forces. There are number of methods available for improving the mechanical and engineering property of soil. Geocell reinforcement is one of the methods developed in recent time for in-situ stabilization of all kind slopes. This report aims to check the behavior of slope profile in tenns of soil mass displaced from its original position after providing the geocells as the reinforcement in slope under dynamic conditions. Investigation was carried out on a shake table, which gives one,. dimensional steady state vibrations and plain strain condition is adopted. Dynamic parameters used are acceleration (g), frequency (Hz) and dynamic loading duration (cycles). The failure in slope is studied with the help of soil detached from the original soil. mass. These tests had been performed at constant frequency of 4 Hz. The range of acceleration chosen was 10%, 20%, 30% of acceleration due to gravity. The displacement of soil mass was observed at 3 different duration of 5cycles, 10 cycles and 15cycles from starting of dynamic loading. Tests were performed at slope without any reinforcement, slope i reinforced with geocell without aggregates and slope reinforced with geocells filled with aggregates. Keywords: slope, geocell, acceleration, frequency, dynamic, aggregates. 0