Numerical and Physical Modeling of Slope Stabilization with Large Diameter Shafts

The static and dynamic stability of a uniformly fine-graded sandy slope reinforced with large diameter shafts (LDS) have been investigated by a series of geotechnical centrifuge tests at the ISMGEO laboratory in Seriate (BG), Italy. The main objective of the work is to build dynamic and static numerical models of the experiment able to satisfactorily capture the observed response of the physical model in laboratory and throw light into the behaviour of a slope stabilized with LDS under static and seismic loading and understand the response of this complex geotechnical-structural system. This paper presents the preliminary results of the numerical simulations of the dynamic tests, conducted by using the finite difference-based solver FLAC 2D (Itasca, 2011). Based on the results of the numerical-experimental studies, a simplified methodology will be proposed for the design of LDS aimed to reinforce unstable slopes under various geological and geotechnical conditions as a future development.