Effect of Reinforcement Length and Distribution on Safety of Slopes

An example of a reinforced slope is shown. The most crucial failure mechanism found in stability calculations is one which allows the pull-out failure mode for some reinforcement layers, and the rupture for others (mixed mode of failure). The length and distribution of reinforcement is varied to indicate potential benefits in terms of the increase in the safety factor. For the example presented, the potential increase in the safety factor due to varied length (while the total amount of geosynthetic kept constant) was found to be negligible, but a clear adverse effect occurred for some distributions of geosynthetic length and spacing