A Proposal to Evaluate Effects of Two Rows Piles on Slope Stability Using Elasto-Plastic FEM

Abstract

Abstract Piles have been successfully applied to stabilize landslides and slopes. In the existing design methods the necessary stabilizing force supplied by the piles is determined with the prescribed safety factor using the conventional limit equilibrium method, and the bending moment and shear force in piles are evaluated using the subgrade reaction method. However, as the three-dimensional soil-pile interaction exists in the slopes stabilized with piles, much more investigations are necessary to understand the interaction mechanism and the exact evaluation of the stabilizing effect. In the present study the three-dimensional elasto-plastic finite element method with the reduced shear strength is presented and used to predict the stabilizing effects of two rows piles on the slope stability. The effects of the pile arrangements and pile head conditions to connect the two rows piles on the stabilizing effect are analyzed and investigated. The numerical results indicate that the proposed elasto-plastic FEM with the reduced shear strength has the ability to evaluate reasonably the stabilizing effects of piles on the slope stability. It is possible for the proposed method to investigate the stabilizing mechanism of piles in the slopes and to determine effectively the number, arrangement, and connection of piles.