Limit Analysis of Geosynthetic-Reinforced Soil Slopes

A kinematic solution of the plasticity theory applied to the stability of geosynthetic-reinforced soil slopes is presented in this paper. Translational and rotational failure mechanisms are considered and rigorously compared. For slopes heavily reinforced with geosynthetics, the limit loads obtained using a translational failure mechanism are smaller than those obtained using a rotational failure mechanism, while for slopes with a reduced amount of geosynthetic reinforcement, the latter yields better results. A rotational failure mechanism consistently yields lower stability factor values for load-free geosynthetic reinforced slopes. Limit analysis method solutions are compared to solutions obtained using limit equilibrium and slip-line methods.