Evaluation of the Use of Piles as a Stabilizing Element for Slope Stability

Abstract This paper assesses the stability of pile reinforced slopes considering the statistical variability of the soil geomechanical parameters and varying the reinforcement geometry. The variation in the factor of safety and the probability of failure of the possibilities under analysis are evaluated with the implementation of reinforcement in different situations. For this purpose, theoretical and numerical methods were used, employing Slide and RSpile programs, which use the limit-equilibrium method to verify slope stability and p–y curves to analyze pile strength. The conclusion is that increasing pile diameter and decreasing the spacing between piles contribute to increase slope stability and the best positioning for piles is close to the slope crest. The factor of safety also increases as pile length increases. However, there is a minimum length for the pile to mobilize stress on the slope and a maximum length beyond which no significant improvements in stability are detected. The displacements in the pile obtained by the p–y curves comply with the admissible recommendations in the literature.