Centrifuge modeling of geotextile-reinforced steep clay slopes

When on-site soil is not granular, substantial cost savings can be achieved if a stable, steeply sloped, reinforced retaining system, backfilled with on-site fill can be sustituted for a vertical retaining wall with granular fill. Centrifuge modeling was used in this work to investigate the failure and prefailure behaviour of 14 reduced-scale geotextile-reinforced steep model slopes of 45, 63.4, 71.6°, backfilled with cohesive soil and constructed on either firm or rigid foundations. The overall performance of model slopes on firm foundations was found to be better than that of similar models on rigid foundations. A stability analysis, using the Bishop simplified method incorporating reinforcement, was found to be a good predictor of the behaviour of models. Key words: reinforced soil, centrifuge modeling, geotextile, retaining structure, slope stability.