Numerical Investigation of Slope Stabilization Using Recycled Plastic Pins in Yazoo Clay

Geographically, at the center of Mississippi is a concentration of High Plastic Yazoo Clay Soil (HPYCS). Shallow landslides frequently occur in embankments constructed with HPYCS caused by rainfall-induced saturation of the embankment slope. The traditional methods are becoming expensive to repair the shallow slope failure. The use of Recycled Plastic Pins (RPPs) to stabilize shallow slope failures offers a significant cost and construction benefit and can be a useful remedial measure for these types of failures. The current study investigates the effectiveness of RPP in slopes constructed with HPYCS, using the Finite Element Method (FEM). The FEM analysis was conducted with the PLAXIS 2D software package. Three uniform and varied RPP spacings were investigated to reinforce 2–4H:1V slopes. Reinforced slope stability analyses were performed to investigate the applicability of RPP in HPYCS. The FEM analysis results indicated that RPP provides shear resistance for the sloping embankment constructed of HPYCS. Uniform spacing of RPP provides sufficient resistance that increases the Factor of Safety (FS) to 1.68 in 2H:1V slopes with deformation of RPP less than 15 mm. The uniform spacing and varied spacing combination of RPP increase the FS to 2.0 with the deformation of RPP less 7 mm.