Study on the effect of sand - clay ratio and water content to factor of safety of slope and effectiveness of Geogrid in slope reinforcement

Abstract

This paper focuses on studying the effect of the ratio of grain composition (sand and clay) and water content to factor of safety of artificial soil slope, and simultaneously analyzing the effectiveness of geogrid applying in slope reinforcement consisting of various grain compositions and water contents. Limit equilibrium method – LEM and Bishop’s Simplified calculation method are used to analyze slope stability. Factor of safety (FS) is calculated by hand calculation method (using AutoCAD and Excel) and computed by SLOPE/W software. The analyzing result shows that with soil having sand - clay ratio of 90 - 10, water content influences insignificantly to FS of slope; with soil having sand - clay ratio of 80 - 20, water content influences significantly to FS of slope; and with soil having sand - clay ratio of 70 - 30, water content influences significantly to FS of slope. Besides, a stability analysis of geogrid in slope reinforcement with varying soil water content shows that the effectiveness with soil having sand - clay ratios of 90 - 10, 80 - 20 and 70 - 30 is not significant, good and much better, respectively .