SCIENTIFIC OR TECHNICAL NOTE

Stability analysis of steep nailed slopes under

seismic condition using 3-D finite element
method
Smrutirekha Sahoo*, B. Manna and K. G. Sharma
This paper presents the behavior of steep nailed soil slopes under seismic conditions by numerical
studies. Three-dimensional solid numerical models have been developed to simulate steep nailed
soil slopes by finite element (FE) method. The real-time history analyses are carried out to study the
seismic response of steep-nailed soil slopes. The effect of various influencing parameters such as
the nail inclination, nail length, frequency amplification factor, and the slope angles on the seismic
resistance and failure mechanism of the nailed slopes is studied in details. All the numerical models
developed have been used to examine the shaking table test results of steep nailed slopes (Hong et
al., 2005). The numerical results such as maximum lateral displacements at various heights of the
facing are compared with the test results for two different nail inclinations, nail lengths, frequency
amplification factors, and the slope angles at various peak amplitudes of accelerations.
Keywords: Steep nailed soil slopes, 3-D models, Finite element approach, Seismic response, Facing displacement

Introduction (Bathurst and Alfaro, 1996) because of Earthquakes

Soil nailing is one of the most competent as well as cost-
effective technique for the stabilization of slopes, excava-
tions, and retaining walls. For the first time, application of
soil nailing technique for improving the stability of slopes
was started in Versailles (France) in 1972. The basic
concept of soil nailing method lie in the insertion of steel
reinforcing bars in the ground to increase the overall shear
strength of the in situ soil, and hence, restrain displace-
ment and limit decompression of soil during and after
excavation. It has also been proved in the literature (Hong
et al., 2005) that the performance of nailed soil slopes is
quite excellent than the gravity retaining structures under
seismic conditions. The literature on the nailed soil
structures bring out the fact that lots of work have been
done on the design and construction methodologies,
laboratory modeling and numerical modeling of nailed
slopes, and excavations under static load condition. Hong
et al. (2005) investigated the performance of nailed soil
slopes under seismic condition in the laboratory. Lou and
Ye (2008) and Sabahit et al. (1996) studied theoretically
the performance of such structures under seismic condi-
tions. The failure or distress reported in the literature
Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New
Delhi 110016, India
*Corresponding author, email s.sahoo.iitd@gmail.com; smruti_5010@yahoo.
co.in
showed how vulnerable the nailed soil structures are to
ground motions. Hence, more research is required to
properly understand how the nailed soil structures behave
under seismic conditions.
A series of laboratory shaking table tests were
conducted on five model nailed soil slopes with various
nail and slope arrangements (Hong et al., 2005). In this
paper, an attempt is made to back-analyze all those five
models for different input peak amplitudes of accelera-
tions (g) such as 0?118, 0?188, 0?221, 0?598, and 0?818
(chosen from each of the models from shaking table test),
which are summarized in Table 1. The input peak
amplitude of accelerations (g) depicted with bold number-
ing in Table 1 in case of each of the model slope are the
matching accelerations to the respective model slopes
during the shake table testing. The numerical models using
finite element software, MIDAS GTS are developed
to examine the effect of nail inclinations, nail lengths,
frequency amplification factors, and the slope angles on
the seismic response of steep nailed soil slopes.
Details of the numerical model
Three-dimensional solid numerical models for the simula-
tion of steep nailed slopes with different nail inclinations,
nail lengths, and slope angles are developed using the same
geometry as per the dimensions of the laboratory shaking
table test (Hong et al., 2005). The nails are modeled as
one-dimensional beam elements and the facing plate is

2014 W. S. Maney & Son Ltd

Received 15 July 2014; accepted 9 October 2014 International Journal of
DOI 10.1179/1939787914Y.0000000084 Geotechnical Engineering 2014 VOL 000 NO 000 1
Sahoo et al. Steep nailed soil slopes under seismic conditions

a Front view and b isometric view. (All dimensions are in millimeters)

1 The mesh and boundary conditions used for the nite element (FE) analysis for model 2

modeled as two-dimensional plate element. The dimen- s r

sions of PMMA tubes (nails) and PMMA plate (facing) lz2G lz2G
Cp ~r:A: ~W :A: ~cp :A (1)
used in finite element (FE) analysis are considered as per r W :9:81
the reported literature (Hong et al., 2005). The Mohr
Coulomb model is adopted for soil to simulate the s r
elastoplastic behavior of soil. The material parameters of : : G : : G
Cs ~r A ~W A ~cs :A (2)
soil and nails adopted for the FE analysis are shown in r W 9:81
:
Table 2. The material parameters of soil, nail, and facing vE E
plate are also considered same as those adopted for the where l~ (1zv)(1{2v) ; G~ 2(1zv)
shake table testing. The interface elements are created A, cross-sectional area (m2); E, modulus of elasticity
around the nail elements by calculating the normal (kN m22); W, unit weight (kN m23); l, volumetric modu-
stiffness modulus, shear stiffness modulus, cohesion, lus of elasticity (kN m22); G, shear modulus (kN m22);
internal friction angle, and the assumed strength reduction n, Poissons ratio.
factor from the material properties to provide the interface In FE analysis, the meshing for soil elements has been
between soil and nail. done using 10-noded tetrahedron elements. The meshing
In this study, the damping constants, i.e. cp and cs type chosen for the facing plate and nail elements are 8-
required for the time history analysis are calculated as noded quadratic and linear, respectively. The schematic
follows [MIDAS/GTS, 2013 (v1?1)] diagram of geometry and generated mesh of the model no.

Table 1 Summary of numerically developed model slope arrangements

Model No. Slope angle/u Nail length/m Nail inclination/u Frequency amplification factor Input peak amplitude of accelerations/g

1 80 0.4 0 5.0 0.118, 0.188, 0.221, 0?598, 0.818

2 80 0.4 30 5.0 0.118, 0.188, 0.221, 0.598, 0?818
3 80 0.5 0 5.0 0.118, 0?188, 0.221, 0.598, 0.818
4 80 0.4 0 3.5 0?118, 0.188, 0.221, 0.598, 0.818
5 90 0.4 0 5.0 0.118, 0.188, 0?221, 0.598, 0.818

Table 2 Material properties of soil and nail

Parameters Soil Nail

22
Modulus of Elasticity E/ kN m 45 040 3 270 000
Poissons ratio n 0.25 0.4
Unit weight c/kN m23 15.245 11.8
Cohesion c/kN m22 (assumed apparent cohesion) 0.5
Frictional angle Q 43.7
Model type MohrCoulomb Elastic

2 International Journal of Geotechnical Engineering 2014 VOL 000 NO 000

 Sahoo et al. Steep nailed soil slopes under seismic conditions

2 Typical history of input acceleration where the duration of the earthquake compressed by a frequency amplication factor
of ve (time history of the acceleration in the eastwest direction at observatory station TCU074 during the 1999 Chi-Chi
earthquake)

2 is shown in Fig. 1. The other four models are also
developed similar to this model by adopting the same
mesh type as well as same element size. In this paper, two
types of boundary conditions are considered: free-roller
and full-fixity. The free-roller and the full-fixity boundary
condition are considered for the side soil boundary nodes
and the bottom soil boundary nodes, respectively. At the
free-roller boundary, which is usually used to represent a
far field boundary condition, soil particles are free to move
in the direction ,which is parallel to the wall boundary. On
the other hand, at the bottom of the slope models, the
elements are fully fixed, and hence, all kind of movements
are restrained.
All the five models developed using the FE method with
different slope and nail arrangements are analyzed with
the input peak amplitude of accelerations (g) as mentioned
in Table 1. The time history analyses are carried out on all
the developed FE model slopes using the earthquake
history, i.e. the eastwest direction at observatory station
TCU074 during the 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake with
different peak amplitudes of acceleration for each model
slope using the FE software, MIDAS GTS. Figure 2 is a
plot of the input acceleration with frequency amplification
factor of five. The duration of the earthquake applied to
all models, except model 4, has been compressed by a
frequency amplification factor of five, i.e. 9018 s. These
data are used in FE analysis to provide unidirectional
(horizontal) seismic excitation, which is similar to the
laboratory shaking table test.
Results and discussions
The comparison study from the plot between the normal-
ized accumulated displacements of the facing at the end of
each seismic excitation and the slope height at every
measured location for all the five model slopes has been
divided mainly into two parts as shown in Fig. 3a and b,
which are as follows:

a Effect of different parameters from finite element (FE) analyses and b test results v FE results
3 Normalized accumulated displacements of the facing at the end of each seismic sequence for all the models

International Journal of Geotechnical Engineering 2014 VOL 000 NO 000 3

Sahoo et al. Steep nailed soil slopes under seismic conditions
(i) The effect of various parameters has been obtained
from the results of FE analyses, which has been
shown in Fig. 3a for all the input peak amplitude of
accelerations (g) as depicted in Table 1.
(ii) A comparison study has been made between the
shake table test results and the FE results as
depicted in Fig. 3b for the respective input peak
amplitude of accelerations (g).
Effect of various parameters
Effect of nail inclination
The effect of nail inclination on the seismic response of
steep slopes is studied from model 1 and model 2 at the
end of each seismic excitation as shown in Fig. 3a having
two different nail inclinations, i.e. 0u and 30u, respectively,
keeping all other parameters as constant. The outward
convex tendency shown in both the models is an evidence
of a combination of translational and rocking movement
with rocking movement as more predominant at all input
loading conditions. It can also be seen from the plot that
the magnitude of facing displacement at all the measured
points is greater in case of horizontally placed nails than
that of inclined nails at higher input peak amplitude of
acceleration. Therefore, it can be concluded from these
plots that the inclined nail for steep slopes is a better
option than the horizontally placed nails.
Effect of length of nails
The effect of nail length on the seismic response of slopes
is studied from model 1 and model 3 at the end of each
seismic excitation as shown in Fig. 3a having two different
nail lengths, i.e. 0?4 and 0?5 m, respectively, keeping all
other parameters as constant. It has been found that there
is no variation in the magnitude as well as pattern of
facing displacement though there is a combination of
translational and rocking movement with rocking move-
ment as more predominant in both the slopes at all input
loading conditions.
Effect of frequency amplification factor
The effect of frequency amplification factor on the seismic
response of slopes is studied from model 1 and model 4 at
the end of each seismic excitation as shown in Fig. 3a
having two different frequency amplification factors, i.e.
5?0 and 3?5, respectively, corresponding to 18?0 and 25?7 s
of excitation keeping all other parameters as constant. It
has been found that there is no variation in the magnitude
as well as pattern of facing displacement though there is a
combination of translational and rocking movement with
rocking movement as more predominant in both the
slopes at all input loading conditions.
Effect of slope angle
The effect of slope angle on the seismic response of two
model slopes such as model 1 and model 5 at the end of
each seismic excitation having slope angle of 80u and 90u,
respectively, keeping all other parameters same is shown in
Fig. 3a. The outward convex tendency shown in both the
models is an evidence of a combination of translational
and rocking movement with rocking movement as more
predominant at all input loading conditions. It can also
be seen from the plot that the magnitude of facing
4 International Journal of Geotechnical Engineering 2014
displacement at all the measured points is greater in case
of the model slope having slope angle of 90u than that of
model slope having slope angle of 80u at all the input peak
amplitude of accelerations. The difference in magnitude of
facing displacement at all the measured locations increases
with increase in input peak amplitude of acceleration.
Therefore, it can be concluded from these plots that the
steep slope having slope angle of 80u is safer than slope
having slope angle of 90u.
Comparison of FE analysis and shake table test
results
The comparison of test results with the FEM results from
the plot between the normalized accumulated displace-
ments of the facing and the slope height at every measured
location for all models is shown in Fig. 3b. It can be seen
that there is no or a very less variation found in the
magnitude as well as the deformation pattern of facing
displacement between the FEM results and the shaking
table test results for model 3 than the rest of the models.
There is a large variation found in the magnitude as well as
the deformation pattern of facing displacement between
the FEM results and the shaking table test results for
model 2 than the rest of the models. It can also be seen
that the magnitude of facing displacement of the FEM
results is found ahead of the test results for model 4 while
for model 1, model 2, and model 5, it is vice versa. From
the plots of all these five models under the respective peak
amplitude of accelerations (g), it has been found that there
is a variation in the magnitude of facing displacement as
well as in the deformation pattern between the FEM
results and the shaking table test results. It has been shown
in the results of FE modeling (Cai and Bathurst, 1995;
Segrestin and Bastick, 1988) that the seismic response of
reinforced soil walls is a function of peak ground acce-
leration, peak velocity, duration of the ground motion,
frequency content, distance from the source, and other
factors. Hence, the variation in the results of shake table
test and the current numerical analysis may be due to
the variation in any one or more of these parameters
considered during the FE analysis and shake table testing.
The initial and final displacement diagram of model 2 at
the end of the final sequence of seismic excitation during
shake table test and at the end of the seismic sequence
having apeak50?818g during FE analysis has been depicted
schematically in Fig. 4a and b, respectively. The critical
amplitude of acceleration for the model 2 at the end of a
range of seismic sequences has already been found as
0?805g from the shaking table test. In the FE analysis, the
peak amplitude of acceleration is considered as
apeak50?818g, which is greater than the critical amplitude
of acceleration (0?805g) obtained from the test. This may
be the reason for the variation in the deformation pattern
of the model slope obtained in FE analysis.
Conclusions
The FE analysis has been conducted on the nailed soil
slope models as per the geometry as well as the material
parameters adopted in shaking table test (Hong et al.,
2005). Some of the important conclusions drawn on the
VOL 000 NO 000

a At the end of the final sequence of seismic excitation during shake table test (Hong et al., 2005) and b at the end of the
seismic sequence having apeak50?818g during finite element (FE) analysis (displacement in x-direction)
4 Initial and nal displacement diagram of model 2
basis of the results obtained from the FE analysis and
comparison with the shaking table test results are as
follows:
The effect of nail length and the frequency amplification
factor on the seismic resistance of nailed soil slopes is very
little though there is a substantial variation in the nature
and magnitude of facing displacement because of variation
in the earthquake loading.
Inclined nails resist the deformation of steep slopes in a
better way than the horizontally placed nails under seismic
conditions.
The effect of slope angle on the seismic resistance of
nailed soil slopes is quite significant. The magnitude of
facing displacement is greater in case of a slope having
slope angle of 90u than the slope angle of 80u but a
combination of translation and a rocking movement is
found in both the cases.
The difference in magnitude and deformation patterns
in both the cases, i.e. FE analysis and the shaking table
test for all the model slopes can be due to the variation in
the peak amplitude of acceleration adopted during the
excitation of each of the model slopes.
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