Modeling of lateral loaded piles in slopes under laboratory conditions

Landslides frequently causes major damages and sometimes even loss of human life. Controlling the stability of natural and man-made slopes is still the main problem of the geotechnical engineering. Avoidance of a potential slide area can be a primary consideration when selecting a new area. Otherwise corrective measures like drainage or improving the slopes geometry must be taken. Retaining walls might be the necessary solution for preventing the failure of the slope. The use of piles as a retaining structure has been applied successfully and proved to be an efficient solution, since piles can often be easily installed without disturbing the equilibrium of the slope. In addition, remediation of slope failures requires stabilization alternatives that address causes of slope instability. Slope reinforcement and pile stabilization systems, if properly designed, are effective in preventing slope movements in weak soils. Soil load transfer to pile elements from the lateral soil movement as occurs in slope failures is a complex soil-structure interaction problem, and the significant differences in existing design procedures of pile stabilization suggest that the stabilizing mechanisms are not fully understood. The downslope soil movement of slope failures induces unique, unknown lateral load distributions along stabilizing piles. The reliable estimation of these load distributions is important, because the influence of piles on the global stability of the slope depends directly on the pile loading condition.In this study, for the purpose of providing the slope stability and to observe the behaviour of the vertical pile along the lateral soil movement, a large scaled shear box manufactured and model experiments for the laboratory conditions studied at the Yıldız Technical University Geotechnics Laboratory. Considered soil is sand and case of the stability of slope with pile is studied for modelling. In the experiments empty aluminum pile with B=35 mm diameter is used and the thickness wall of the pile is t= 5.0 mm. Model pile length is 830 mm. Fixed head piles subjected to the lateral loading is in one row and include total 4 piles. Evaluation of the pile behaviour under the subjected lateral movement can be observed and evaluate from strain levels and displacements. Datas derived from the laboratory tests compared with the empirical correlations and LPILE program.Key Words: slope stability, lateral soil movement, pile, large scaled shear box.