2nd International Conference on

Advances in Concrete, Structural & Geotechnical Engineering

SOIL NAILING FOR SLOPE

STRENGTHENING AND ITS DESIGN
Vanessa Fernandes1,
1
PG Student, Department of Civil Engineering,
Goa College of Engineering, Farmagudi, Ponda. 403401
Goa, India
vanessasanika@rediff.com

Dr. Purnanand Savoikar2

2
Professor, Department of Civil Engineering,
Goa College of Engineering, Farmagudi, Ponda. 403401
Goa, India
psavoikar@gmail.com
Abstract - In the recent years there has been a significant reduction on the availability of good
quality of land due to rising population, urbanization and more development of infrastructures.
Due to this in the construction activities engineers tend to use soft and weak soils and improve
its strength by making use of various ground improvement techniques. These ground
improvement techniques helps in improving the bearing capacity of the soil and reduce the
settlement. Soil nailing is a ground improvement technique which helps in reinforcing,
stabilizing and retaining excavations and deep cuts. When the facing of the system is subvertical
and designed to provide function as a structural member which provides retention action to the
ground. In such a case the soil nailed system is considered as a soil nailed retaining
wall.Throughout the design of a soil nailed system, requirement of stability, serviceability and
durability during construction should be carried out. The present study includes the design of
soil nail wall for a height of 8m. Soil nail wall was designed for static case and factor of safety
against external, internal and facing failure modes are estimated. From the design it is
concluded that with the increase in the height of the wall factor of safety for global, sliding,
pullout and nail tensile failure decreases.Case study in Goa is illustrated to show that the soil
nailing technique can be used for many infrastructure projects and the technique improves the
stability of slopes and stability of the vertical cuts.

Keywords - soilnailng, static,factor of safety, global, sliding,pullout

I .INTRODUCTION

Soil nailing is been used in geotechnical engineering to stabilise existing slopes or excavations where
top-to-bottom construction is advantageous compared to other retaining wall system. It is an in-situ
reinforcement method used to reinforce and strengthen ground by installing steel bars called as nails.
The various types of soil nails include the driven nails, grouted nails, corrosion protected nails, jet
grouted and launched nails. The favourable soil conditions for soil nailing include stiff to hard fine
grained soil, dense to very dense granular soils with some apparent cohesion, weathered rock with no
weakness plane and glacial soils. Whereas the unfavourable conditions include dry, poorly graded
cohesionless soils, soils with high ground water, soils with cobbles and boulders, soft to very soft
cohesionless soils. Due to many technological advances and the use of improved construction
materials and techniques the soil nail construction technique is gaining acceptance and popularity.

2. LITERATURE SURVEY:

Self drilling bars are high strength hollow steel all thread bars which is used as grout injecting, self-
boring soil nail installed as drill rods with a sacrificial bit [5]. These method of installation solves the
problem of hole stability in loose overburdensoils.Optical fibre monitoring system studied is a slope
monitoring system based on Fibre Bragg Grating (FBG) sensing technology [7]. This monitoring
system is designed to perform long term monitoring of slope movements, strains along soil nails and
other slope reinforcement elements.Analysis using model tests was done to find the effect of nailed
angle on the stability of nailed cuts [9]. For this purpose nailed open cut of height 40cm was made in
model tank. In order to get load versus settlement curves plate load tests was performed on strip
footing having different configurations. Experimental results showed that horizontally driven nails
have more factor of safety than vertically driven nails in sand. Analysis on behaviour of soil nail wall
under dynamic condition. Following the guidelines a soil nail wall of height 1m was designed.. In
order to investigate the behaviour and wall deformations of soil nail wall laboratory plate load test and
finite element analysis was performed. The settlement of the soil nail wall decreases with the increase
in the relative density of sand was proved from the laboratory study conducted on the soil nail. With
the increase in relative density of sand from 25% to 50 % ( L = 0.5m and D = 6mm) the settlement of
soil nail wall was decreased by 79.67%. As the nail length increased from 0.5mto 0.6m the settlement
of soil nail was decreased by 44.2%. From the finite element analysis of the soil nail wall the variation
of bending moments and shear forces along the nails were obtained. The results showed that both the
BM and SF and concentrated near the face of the wall.

3. SOIL NAILING FOR SLOPE STRENGTHENING:

Since the slope is susceptible to failure during remedial works the design and construction of slope
remedial works pose high risk to geotechnical engineers. The soil nailing technique can be carried out
on slope surface with minimum earthworks and this technique poses lower risk during construction.
Hence soil nailing technique is commonly adopted for slope stabilization works. When the slope is
unstable or in a failed state the common method of repairing the unstable slope is to excavate the
offending soils and use geogrids to rebuild the slope. This method is costly and acquires more space.
Hence soil nailing technique is used to stabilise and strengthen the slopes.

Fig. 1: Soil nailing for slope strengthening

 4 DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS

The various practises in soil nailing are discussed below.

Soil nail wall is designed for an height of 8m.Factor of safety against global, sliding, nail pull-out
failure, nail tensile failure and facing punching shear failure is calculated.

The figure 2 shows various parameters of soil nail wall

Fig.2: Parameters of soil nail wall

4.1 Design parameters

Vertical height of wall H=8m,Face batter:  =0, back slope angle =0, Nailing type: Driven, Soil nail
spacing Sh=Sv =0.5, Soil nail inclination i=25o,Soil nail materials: Grade Fe415, fy=415 Mpa,Soil
properties: Dense to very dense sand, Cohesion c=0 KPa ,=27,=16 KN/m3,Ultimate bond strength

Surcharge qs =0.0KPa

5.2 Static Condition

As per FHWA (2003) for the design of soil nail wall under static conditions following factors were
calculated
Lateral earth pressure Ka=0.3
Maximum axial tensile force Tmax=11.84KN
Diameter of soil nail=20mm
Length of soil nail=4.8m
The factor of safety against various modes of failure is calculated based on the given parameters and
shown in Table 1
Table 1: Factor of safety for various failure modes
Height FS(G) FS(SL) FS(P) FS(T) FS(FF) FS(FP)
(m)
8 1.36 1.65 1.17 11.01 17.78 15.32
In Table 1, FSG = Global stability failure; FSSL = Sliding stability failure; FSP = Nail pull-out failure;
FST = Nail tensile failure; FSFF = Facing flexural failure; FSFP = Facing punching shear failure

5. CASE STUDY

The main objective of the case study is to study that the soil nailing technique is an effective
technique of stabilization of vertical cuts and in underpass.

5.1 Slope protection at Ponda, Goa

A vertical cut of 14 m height and a pipeline of diameter 0.75 m passing over the vertical cut were the
two major issues of concern [2]. Frequent landslides occur as the soil has very low shear strength
parameters. Soil retention works with soil nailing considering the need to protect the vertical cut was
suggested for the above problem.
Solution: A 12m height was retained and available base width was about 4m. Soil nailing is an in-situ
reinforcement method in which the ground is reinforced and strengthened by installing closely spaced
steel bars called "nails" into a slope. One of the best and suitable solution was soil nailing with
Gabion facia. Between Gabion facia and Vertical cut frictional soil as structural fill was to be filled up
in the gap. At the bottom of Gabion facia concrete base was provided.

Fig.3: Soil nail wall before construction

Fig.4: Soil nail wall during construction

 Fig.5 : Maccaferi gabion boxes filled with stone

Fig.6: Soil nail wall after construction

VI. PRACTICAL SIGNIFICANCE

Soil nailing technique is used for temporary and permanent applications in urban and rural areas. It is
used for retaining walls, slope stabilization, stabilizing tunnel portals, construction and retrofitting of
bridge abutments, repair of reinforced earth walls, repair of masonry gravity retaining walls,
stabilization of failed slopes and repair of anchored walls.In the retaining wall construction it is used
for excavations associated with foundations of buildings, underground car parks and cut and cover
construction for transportation system Soil nailing tends to minimize excavation, requires reasonable
right-of-way (ROW) and clearing limits, and hence, minimizes environmental impacts within the
transportation corridor. Soil nailing technique provides long term stability to existing concrete
structures without demolition. By removal of an existing bridge abutment end slope soil nail walls can
be advantageous for underpass widening.

Fig.7: Stabilization of rail road

 Fig.8 Stabilization of steep slopes

Fig.9: Soil nailing used to stabilize wall

VII. CONCLUSIONS

The theoretical aspects of soil nailing were studied in the literature study conducted by various
researchers. The soil nailing technique can be carried out on slope surface with minimum earthworks
and this technique poses lower risk during construction. Hence soil nailing technique is commonly
adopted for slope stabilization works. From the case studies it is concluded that soil nailing technique
should be used on a large scale in India and in many infrastructure projects and it is a very
advantageous technique. The design of soil nailing is done by FHWA (2003) and it provides safe
design. With the increase in the height of soil nail wall the F.O.S for global stability decreases. With
the increase in the height of soil nail wall the F.O.S for sliding stability decreases. With the increase in
the height of soil nail wall the F.O.S for nail pullout failure decreases. With the increase in the height
of soil nail wall the F.O.S for nail tensile failure decreases.

IX. NOMENCLATURE

C-Cohesion (KPa)

D-Diameter (m)

FSG-Global stability failure

FSSL-Sliding stability failure

FSp-Nail pullout failure

FST-Nail tensile failure

FSFF-Facing flexural failure

FSFF-Facing flexural failure

FSFP-Facing punching failure

FOS-Factor of safety

H-Height (m)

i-Soil nail inclination

Ka-Lateral earth pressure

Sh-Soil nail horizontal spacing

Sv- Soil nail vertical spacing

qu-Ultimate bond strength (KPa)

qs-surcharge (KPa)

Tmax-Maximum axial tensile force (KN)

-Face batter

-Back slope angle

REFERENCES:

[1] Yean-Chin,T. and Chee-Meng,C.(2004),‟Slope stabilization using soil nails: Design assumptions
and construction realities."

[2] Maccaferi, “Case study on Slope protection at Ponda-Goa’’

[3] Jaya,V.and Annie,J.(2011),‟A numerical investigation of nailed vertical soil wall using pseudo
static approach",Proceedings of Indian Geotechnical Conference,No.251

[4] Federal Highway Administration, US Department of Transport, Geotechnical Engineering

Circular No 7, Soil nail walls. March 2003.
[5] T. Armour and D. Cotton, “Recent advances in soil nailed earth retention,”, A joint conference,
USA, 2003.

[6] W. Kutscheke, F. Tarquina and W. Peterson, “Typical soil nailing practises in the United States,”
Proceedings of Deep foundations Institute,32nd Annual conference on Deep foundations, USA, 2007.

[7] H. Zhu, A. HO, H. Yin, H. Sun, H. Pei and C. Hong, “An optical fibre monitoring system for
evaluating the performance of a soil nailed slope,” International Journal of Smart structure system,
Vol 9,pp.393-410. 2012

[8]Federal highway administration,(2006)‟Hollow core soil nails-State of the practise"

[9] Javia, V., Verma, A. and Bhatt, D. (2013), “An Experimental Study on Horizontal and Inclined
Soil Nails in Sand”, International Journal of Global Research and Analysis, Vol. 2, No. 4, pp.