Geocell reinforced slope behavior under seismic loading using calibrated hypoplastic soil constitutive model

Abstract

This study evaluates geocell reinforced slope behavior under seismic loading using calibrated hypoplastic soil constitutive model. The constitutive soil model used in this simulation was calibrated for poorly graded dense sand by conducting a series of triaxial and odometer tests. A three dimensional analysis is carried out to simulate geocells and this soil model using the finite element software PLAXIS3D. To investigate the geocell seismic behavior, the lateral displacement, induced tensile force in geocell, slope stability and frequency content effect have been assessed. Furthermore, a comparison has been made among hypoplastic, Hardening soil with small strain and Mohr-Coulomb model. The obtained results indicated that the volumetric plastic strain and intergranular strain consideration by hypoplastic model had a significant effect on the lateral displacement of the reinforced and unreinforced slope. Using the geocell layers leaded to decrease the plastic points. This behavior caused to decrease the estimated results difference when performing three constitutive models as soil failure criterion. Also, the tensile force showed hypoplastic model was not sensitive to the earthquake reversible force. In addition, it was found that the geocells lost their effect when the PGA increased and the slope was apt to fail.