Displacement Behavior of Strip Footing on Pile Stabilized in Clayey Earth Slopes

Man-made or natural earth slopes are created or used for different construction activities. Earth slopes can result from activities such mine excavation and dredging for berthing structures. Typical examples of the creation and use of earth slopes are rail and road embankments, and river training bunds. Both types of slopes can be high and subject to large lateral loads and thus, may require extra pile stabilizations to reinforce their stability. This paper presents the behavior of a slope and piles subjected to increasing loads applied to the strip footing just behind the crest. To evaluate the performance of a slope a small scale physical test model was built to reproduce a plain-strain state within a clayey soil slope. High resolution photographs were taken in short intervals through the glass wall of the model during the foot settlement and the soil deformation of reinforced slopes. The evaluation of the photographic data provided an interesting insight into the deformation mechanism and the progressive failure characteristics of pile reinforced slopes. The results indicate that stabilizing with piles has a significant effect on clayey earth slopes especially in terms of improving the bearing capacity and controlling the deformation behavior of the strip footing.