Centrifuge modeling of geotextile-reinforced slopes subjected to differential settlements

Today, geosynthetic-reinforced soil structures are widely used to support bridge abutments and approach roads in place of traditional pile supports and techniques. In such situations, foundation conditions have been shown to adversely affect the stability and deformation behaviour of overlying geosynthetic-reinforced slopes and walls. This paper addresses the response of geotextile-reinforced slopes subjected to differential settlements in a geotechnical centrifuge. Centrifuge model tests were carried out on model geotextile-reinforced sand slopes with two different types of reinforcement. A wrap-around technique was used to represent a flexible facing. In order to initiate failure in the reinforcement layers, the ratio of length of reinforcement to height of the slope was maintained as 0.85. One of the objectives of this paper is to present about a special device developed for inducing differential settlements during centrifuge test at 40g for a reinforced soil structure. A digital image analysis technique was employed to arrive at displacement vectors of markers glued to the reinforcement layers. The displacements were used to compute and analyze the strain distribution along the reinforcement layers during different settlement stages. Results of the centrifuge test indicate that even after inducing a differential settlement equivalent to 1.0 m in prototype dimensions, the geotextile-reinforced soil structure with a flexible facing was not found to experience a collapse failure. Analysis of geotextile strain results shows that the location of the maximum peak reinforcement strain occurs along the bottom-most reinforcement layer at the onset of differential settlements, at the point directly below the crest of the slope.