Abstract
A distinctive slope stabilisation method that integrates two well-developed slope stabilisation methods is investigated in this study. This slope stabilisation method combines embedded piles with geogrid-reinforced retaining walls which have flexible gabion basket wall facing. To study the effect of this integrated slope stabilisation method on the stability of the slope under the negative impacts of groundwater, the strength reduction finite element method with steady seepage analysis is adopted. By defining several different locations of the water table, the influence of the groundwater on the slope stability has been studied. The numerical results indicate that the highest water table reduces the stability of the slope up to \(28.8\%\) and causes the loss of matric suction to approximately \(34.3\%\). Moreover, to mitigate the negative impact from groundwater on the slope stability, a typical retaining wall drainage based on the Australian Standards has been utilised and analysed. The results from the comparison among slope configurations with and without the drainage indicate that the drainage system can reduce the negative impacts of the groundwater and preserve the matric suction effectively. As a distinctive slope stabilisation method, the contribution from embedded piles to the stability of geogrid-reinforced retaining walls under the negative effect of groundwater has been demonstrated. In addition, the effect of groundwater and typical retaining wall drainage on the behaviour of slope and the performance of geogrids and piles has also been investigated.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
Data and materials used during the study will be made available upon reasonable request to the corresponding author.
References
API (2000) API-RP-2A-Recommended practice for planning, designing and constructing fixed offshore platforms-working stress design
Badarinath R, El Naggar H (2021) Improving the stability of high embankments founded on soft marine clay by utilizing prefabricated vertical drains and controlling the pace of construction. Int J Geosynth Ground Eng 7(3):1–27. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40891-021-00312-8
Bansal RK, Das SK (2009) Effects of bed slope on water head and flow rate at the interfaces between the stream and groundwater: analytical study. J Hydrol Eng 14(8):832–838. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)HE.1943-5584.0000048
Bishop AW (1959) The principle of effective stress. Teknisk Ukeblad 39:859–863
Brumley J (1983) Slope stability in the Strzelecki Ranges, Victoria. In: Knight MJ, Minty EJ, Smith RB (eds) Case studies in engineering geology, hydrogeology and environmental geology, Australia. Geological Society of Australia, Hornsby, pp 127–147
Cai F, Ugai K (2004) Numerical analysis of rainfall effects on slope stability. Int J Geomech 4(2):69–78. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)1532-3641(2004)4:2(69)
Cai F, Ugai K, Wakai A, Li Q (1998) Effects of horizontal drains on slope stability under rainfall by three-dimensional finite element analysis. Comput Geotech 23(4):255–275. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0266-352X(98)00021-4
Conte E, Troncone A (2018) A performance-based method for the design of drainage trenches used to stabilize slopes. Eng Geol 239:158–166. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enggeo.2018.03.017
Cotecchia F, Lollino P, Petti R (2016) Efficacy of drainage trenches to stabilise deep slow landslides in clay slopes. Geotech Lett 6(1):1–6. https://doi.org/10.1680/jgele.15.00065
Deng DP, Lia L, Zhao LH (2019) Stability analysis of slopes under groundwater seepage and application of charts for optimization of drainage design. Geomech Eng 17(2):181–194. https://doi.org/10.12989/gae.2019.17.2.181
Doumbouya L, Guan CS, Bowa VM (2020) Influence of rainfall patterns on the slope stability of the Lumwana (the Malundwe) open pit. Geotech Geol Eng 38(2):1337–1346. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10706-019-01094-7
Ganesh R, Sahoo JP (2017) Vertical uplift resistance of plate anchors with the fluctuations of groundwater table. Int J Geosynth Ground Eng 3(1):1–8. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40891-017-0084-8
Ghanbarian-Alavijeh B, Liaghat A, Huang GH, Van Genuchten MT (2010) Estimation of the van Genuchten soil water retention properties from soil textural data. Pedosphere 20(4):456–465. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1002-0160(10)60035-5
Griffiths D, Lane P (1999) Slope stability analysis by finite elements. Geotechnique 49(3):387–403. https://doi.org/10.1680/geot.1999.49.3.387
Gu M, Collin JG, Han J et al (2017) Numerical analysis of instrumented mechanically stabilized gabion walls with large vertical reinforcement spacing. Geotext Geomembr 45(4):294–306. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geotexmem.2017.04.002
Ho IH, Li S, Ma L (2020) Analysis of partially saturated clayey slopes using finite element method. Soil Mech Found Eng 56(6):382–389. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11204-020-09619-6
Huang M, Jia CQ (2009) Strength reduction FEM in stability analysis of soil slopes subjected to transient unsaturated seepage. Comput Geotech 36(1–2):93–101. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compgeo.2008.03.006
Janbu N (1976) Static bearing capacity of friction piles. In: Proceedings of the 6th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, vol 1, pp 479–488
Jiang Y, Han J, Zornberg J, Parsons RL, Leshchinsky D, Tanyu B (2019) Numerical analysis of field geosynthetic-reinforced retaining walls with secondary reinforcement. Geotechnique 69(2):122–132. https://doi.org/10.1680/jgeot.17.P.118
Jiang Y, Wang X (2011) Stress-strain behaviour of gabion in compression test and direct shear test. In: Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Transportation Engineering. pp 1457–1462. https://doi.org/10.1061/41184(419)241
Krabbenhoft K, Lyamin A, Krabbenhoft J (2020) Optum computational engineering (OptumG2). Computer software. Retrieved from. https://www.optumce.com
Lo DO, Cunningham J, Burland JB (2018) Investigation of distress of a reinforced earth wall in Hong Kong. Proc Inst Civ Eng-Fo 171(3):127–136. https://doi.org/10.1680/jfoen.17.00018
Luo F, Zhang G, Liu Y, Ma C (2018) Centrifuge modelling of the geotextile reinforced slope subject to drawdown. Geotext Geomembr 46(1):11–21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geotexmem.2017.09.001
Melnikova N, Jordan D, Krzhizhanovskaya V, Sloot P (2015) Numerical prediction of the IJkDijk trial embankment failure. Proc Inst Civil Eng-Geotec 168(2):158–171. https://doi.org/10.1680/geng.14.00040
Ng CW (2014) The state-of-the-art centrifuge modelling of geotechnical problems at HKUST. J Zhejiang Univ-Sc A 15(1):1–21. https://doi.org/10.1631/jzus.A1300217
Ni P, Mei G, Zhao Y (2018) Influence of raised groundwater level on the stability of unsaturated soil slopes. Int J Geomech 18(12):04018168. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)GM.1943-5622.0001316
Pirone M, Papa R, Nicotera MV, Urciuoli G (2015) In situ monitoring of the groundwater field in an unsaturated pyroclastic slope for slope stability evaluation. Landslides 12(2):259–276. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-014-0483-z
Rahardjo H, Hritzuk KJ, Leong EC, Rezaur RB (2003) Effectiveness of horizontal drains for slope stability. Eng Geol 69(3–4):295–308. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0013-7952(02)00288-0
Rahardjo H, Nio AS, Leong EC, Song NY (2010) Effects of groundwater table position and soil properties on stability of slope during rainfall. J Geotech Geoenviron 136(11):1555–1564. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)GT.1943-5606.0000385
Standards Australia (2002) AS 4678–2002: Earth-Retaining Structures. Standards Australia, Sydney
Schnellmann R, Busslinger M, Schneider HR, Rahardjo H (2010) Effect of rising water table in an unsaturated slope. Eng Geol 114(1–2):71–83. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enggeo.2010.04.005
Smith J (2014) Rapid and progressive deterioration of local road assets caused by slope instability in regional Victoria, Australia. In: Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Infrastructure Failures and Consequences, Melbourne
Supandi (2021) The influence of water balance for slope stability on the high mine waste dump. Geotech Geol Eng 39:5253–5266. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10706-021-01829-5
Timpong S, Itoh K, Toyosawa Y (2007) Geotechnical centrifuge modelling of slope failure induced by ground water table change. In: Proceedings of the International Conference on Landslides and Climate Change. London, Taylor and Francis Group: 107–112
Van Genuchten MT (1980) A closed-form equation for predicting the hydraulic conductivity of unsaturated soils. Soil Sci Soc Am J 44(5):892–898. https://doi.org/10.2136/sssaj1980.03615995004400050002x
Visualising Victoria’s Groundwater (2019). http://www.vvg.org.au
Wang Y, Smith JV, Nazem M (2021) Optimisation of a slope-stabilisation system combining gabion-faced geogrid-reinforced retaining wall with embedded piles. KSCE J Civ Eng 25:4535–4551. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205-021-1300-6
Wu LZ, Selvadurai APS (2016) Rainfall infiltration-induced groundwater table rise in an unsaturated porous medium. Environ Earth Sci 75(2):135. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-015-4890-9
Zhang LL, Zhang J, Zhang LM et al (2011) Stability analysis of rainfall-induced slope failure: a review. Proc Inst Civil Eng-Geotec 164(5):299–316. https://doi.org/10.1680/geng.2011.164.5.299
Zhang S, Pei X, Wang S et al (2019) Centrifuge model testing of a loess landslide induced by rising groundwater in Northwest China. Eng Geol 259:105170. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enggeo.2019.105170
Zhuang Y, Cui X (2016) An analytical method for a slope reinforced with rigid piles. Proc Inst Civil Eng-Geotec 169(4):368–380. https://doi.org/10.1680/jgeen.15.00079
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank staff from the South Gippsland Shire Council for assistance during site visits. The advice on the revision of this research work from Associate Professor Annan Zhou of RMIT University is appreciated by the authors.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
Yujia Wang: conceptualisation, methodology, validation, data collecting and analysis, investigation and writing original draft; Majidreza Nazem: methodology, investigation, supervision, writing, reviewing and editing; John V. Smith: supervision, writing, reviewing and editing.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Additional information
Responsible Editor: Zeynal Abiddin Erguler
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Wang, Y., Nazem, M. & Smith, J.V. Effect of groundwater and associated drainage on a roadside stabilisation method integrating a gabion-faced geogrid-reinforced retaining wall and embedded laterally loaded piles. Arab J Geosci 15, 1751 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-022-11052-y
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-022-11052-y