Geotechnical 

Engineering
Geotechnical Engineering
KNS 2163
Improvement of Natural & Man‐made slopes through 
Environmental Friendly Method
y
Crib walls & Gabion walls
Geo-textiles
Bio-engineering approach
 Introduction
• Slope instability & erosion of the soil are major 
l i bili & i f h il j
environmental hazards.
• They are both the results of natural geomorphological
processes but also affected by human activity. (Rickson
b l ff b h ( k & 
Morgan 1995)
• Therefore, retaining structures are designed in order to 
support the slope to be stable according to different 
circumstances.
• The followings maybe the solutions that can be taken into 
consideration by the engineers to enhance the stability of 
natural/man‐made slopes which also considered as 
environmentally approach of slopes improvement. They are:
– Gabion walls
– Crib walls
– Geotextiles
– Bio‐engineering method – vegetation 
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 What is Gabion Wall??
What is Gabion Wall??
• Gabion is a wire basket or wire form, filled with 
stones and shaped into a fence
d h di f or retaining wall 
i i ll
type structure. Its name comes from its civil 
history and it is still commonly used in civil works 
y y
today for soil retention, drainage and erosion 
control. 
• Gabions are free‐draining walls that are 
G bi f d i i ll th t
constructed by filling large galvanized steel 
baskets with rock. Gabion walls are in many  y
applications the most cost effective structural 
wall available.

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 Advantages of Gabion Wall
Advantages of Gabion Wall
• Strong base that provides strength from being drag away by river or 
stream.
• Reduce velocity of water as the energy dissipated by the rocks, thus 
reduce erosion.
• Its flexibility gives allowance to small ground movement.
• In most cases, as time goes, voids will be filled by vegetations and 
silt which will reinforce the structure and give extra strength.
• Depends on the availability of material and equipments, handling 
and transporting material is easy and this reduce the time of
and transporting material is easy and this reduce the time of 
construction.
• Voids can be easily seen between the rocks which makes high 
p
permeability to the gabion wall. It allows water to flow through the 
y g g
structure which can maintain the water level in the ground 
(Groundwater level) to be low.

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 Limitations of Gabion Walls
Limitations of Gabion Walls
• Aesthetic
Aesthetic impression is minimal. In a town area, 
impression is minimal In a town area
where slope is supported by the gabion wall, the 
wire mesh basket can be seen and sometimes the 
rocks were surrounded by algae. However, there 
are some types of gabion wall that have high 
aesthetic impression and of course the cost will 
also be higher.
• In a high velocity of flow, wire mesh could 
damage due to high impact of large object.

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Gabion Walls

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 Crib Wall
Crib Wall
• Formed with interlocking pre‐cast concrete 
units (or timber sometimes for temporary 
works); stretches run parallel to the wall face 
and headers are laid perpendicular to the wall 
face; the space formed by the cribs is filled 
with free‐draining material, such as stone 
rubble, cobbles or gravel. 

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Crib Retaining Wall
Crib Retaining Wall

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 Crib walls
Crib walls

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Crib wall with vegetation

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 Geotextiles
• Geotextiles are defined as permeable textiles used in 
j
conjuction with soil, foundation, rock, earth or nay 
y
geotechnical engineering related material as an 
integral part of a man‐made project (John, 1987). 
• Geo
Geo‐textiles
textiles are manufactured by weaving or bonding 
are manufactured by weaving or bonding
fibers made from synthetic materials such as 
polypropylene, polyester, polyethylene, nylon, 
polyvinyl chloride glass and various mixtures of these
polyvinyl chloride, glass, and various mixtures of these 
materials. 
• As a synthetic construction material, geotextiles are 
used for a variety of purposes such as separators
used for a variety of purposes such as separators, 
reinforcement, filtration and drainage, and erosion 
control (USEPA, 1992). 

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 Functions of Geotextiles
Functions of Geotextiles
• 6 functions:
1. separation of two distinct ground materials;
2. filtration, where transfer of fluids but not solids 
takes place through geotextile;
takes place through geotextile;
3. drainage, where the geotextile may increase local 
hydraulic conductivities, so increasing flow to a 
s bs rface drain for e ample
subsurface drain for example 
4. surface erosion control;
5. slope stability and reinforcement;
p y ;
6. amelioration (to make it better) of site conditions for 
vegetation establishment and growth.

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 Types of Geotextiles
Woven Nonwoven
Very strong Stronger as thickness increases
Do not "elongate" or stretch very much  Highly permeable
when a force is applied
h f i li d
A woven geotextile could be used  A non woven geotextile is ideal for use 
for sediment control, unpaved road  with roads, roofs, railroads, ponds, dams, 
bases strengthening paved roads,
bases, strengthening paved roads erosion 
erosion trenches and landfills
trenches, and landfills.
protection, andsubsurface drainage.
Made of woven synthetic fabric (usually  Able to stretch and take the shape of the 
polypropylene or polyester) by weaving
polypropylene or polyester) by weaving  adjacent surface
adjacent surface
yarns together...just like your dress shirt or 
a linen tablecloth
It possesses the following features:
p g Non woven material possess the following 
p g
Woven PolypropyleneUV ResistantRot features:
ResistantBiological Degradation  100% Propylene Staple FibersNeedle‐
ResistantChemically Inert PunchedRandom Network FormationUV
ResistantRot ResistantBiological
Degradation ResistantStable Within 2‐13 
pH
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 Woven Geotextiles
• There are 3 general types of woven geotextiles:
Th 3 lt f t til
– A "slit tape" fabric has a flat tape‐like strand produced by 
slitting and weaving a solid sheet of extruded film. These 
fabrics are the cheapest wovens and are typically used in 
road stabilization/separation applications. A general price 
range would be 10 to 20 cents per square foot.
g p q
– A "monofilament" fabric has strands which are like 
individual fishing lines. It is much higher quality than the slit‐
tapes and is correspondingly more expensive (generally 20
tapes and is correspondingly more expensive (generally 20 
to 30 cents per square foot). Monofilaments are typically 
used for erosion control and drainage purposes.
– A "multifilament"
multifilament consists of many fine continuous filaments 
consists of many fine continuous filaments
that are held together by twisting or intermingling the 
strands. Generally, multifilament fabrics are not commonly 
used for routine projects
used for routine projects.
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Woven Geotextiles
Woven Geotextiles

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 Nonwoven Geotextiles
1. Heat‐bonded
– The major functions: Separation, filtration, drainage, 
reinforcement, protection, and liquid barrier.
2. Needle‐punched
– A nonwoven needle‐punched geotextile has six basic 
functions:
– Filtration, Drainage, Reinforcement, Separation, 
Filt ti D i R i f t S ti
Protection, Waterproofing
– These functions are ideal when
These functions are ideal when closing a 
closing a
lagoon, reinforcing slopes, constructing landfills, 
and retaining earth structures

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Nonwoven Geotextiles – heat‐bonded

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Nonwoven Geotextiles – needle 
punched
h d

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 How to select Geotextiles
Selection will depend on the actual soil and hydraulic conditions, the following general 
considerations seem appropriate for the soil conditions given:
1. Graded gravels and coarse sands ‐ Very open monofilament or multifilament wovens
may be required to permit high rates of flow and a low risk of blinding.
2. Sands and gravels with less than 20% fines (very "dirty" or silty sand and gravel) ‐ Open 
monofilament wovens and needlepunched nonwovens with large openings are 
preferable to reduce the risk of blinding. For thin heat‐bonded nonwoven geotextiles
and thick needlepunched nonwoven geotextiles, filtration tests should be performed.
and thick needlepunched nonwoven geotextiles filtration tests should be performed
3. Soils with 20% to 60% fines (silt or silty sand) ‐ Filtration tests should be performed on 
all fabric types.
4. Soils with greater than 60% fines
Soils with greater than 60% fines (silt or clayey silt) 
(silt or clayey silt) ‐ Heavy weight needlepunched
Heavy weight needlepunched and 
and
heat‐bonded nonwoven geotextiles tend to work best as fines will not pass. If blinding 
does occur, the permeability of the blinding cake would equal that of the soil.
5. Gap graded cohesionless soils ‐ Consider using a uniform sand filter with a woven 
monofilament as a filter for the sand.
6. Silts with sand seams ‐ Consider using a uniform sand filter over the soil with a woven 
geotextile to prevent movement of the filter sand; alternatively, consider using a heavy 
weight (thick) needlepunched
i h ( hi k) dl h d nonwoven directly against soil as water can flow laterally 
di l i il fl l ll
through the geotextile should it become locally clogged.
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 Bio‐engineering methods
• The risk of slope failures and erosion is enhanced 
when the vegetation cover is removed
when the vegetation cover is removed.
• The use of vegetation for slope stabilization and 
erosion control can be referred as bio
erosion control can be referred as bio‐
engineering.
• Bio‐engineering refers to the use of any form of 
Bio engineering refers to the use of any form of
vegetation, whether a single plant or a collection 
of plants as an engineering material
of plants, as an engineering material.

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• The stability of slopes is governed by the load, which is the 
driving force that causes failure, and the resistance, which is the 
strength of the soil‐root system
strength of the soil‐root system.
• Table below shows the beneficial for the slopes from the 
following aspects:
Environment:
Through the increase in carbon sequestration to counter rising the carbon
dioxide (CO2) level in the atmosphere which is generally bringing about global 
warming.
Mechanical:
Through reinforcement of soils by plant roots preventing soil surface erosion
Hydrological:
Through reduction in run off by the interception of rain water during rain thus
Through reduction in run off by the interception of rain water during rain thus
minimizing water entry into the slope which would otherwise weaken it. By 
keeping the slope relatively dry, the soil suction is maintained for a longer 
period thus keeping the slope stronger.

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 Example of Bio‐engineering Study
(
(Huat & Kazemian 2010))
Live Pole Array Stabilization Technique
y q
This technique had been used by the researchers in 
order to analyse the slope stability in accordance with 
Malaysia soil condition. 
For meta‐sediment and granitic residual soils of many 
tropical hill slopes, typical in Malaysia, other woody 
species have been identified as suitable for stem 
cutting to be used as live poles.
tti t b d li l

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 Reinforcement action of tree stems

The figure illustrates the reinforcing action of tree stems, planted deep (some
1.5 ‐2.5 m below ground surface), and roots, in preventing surface soil erosion
and slope failure. This particular technique is called the live pole array
stabilization
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Grasses are the most widely used vegetation on slops as their
roots concentrate usually in the top of 30 to 50 centimeters of
soils, but they can also penetrate up to about one meter.
Shrubs and trees, on the other hand, provide deeper slope
reinforcement, with roots which penetrate to three meters
and more, but are mainly concentrated in top one to two
meters.
meters
Specialized methods have been developed to establish
vegetation on slopes. In these methods, un un‐rooted
rooted cuttings,
which are cut from live plants, are used, imbedded and
arranged in the ground, in special patterns and configurations.
These embedded cuttings take root, become established on
the slope and act as barriers to earth movement, soil
reinforcement moisture wicks and hydraulic drains (Huat et
reinforcement,
al.,2008).
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Two commonly used systems are extended to
sufficient depth to serve as reinforcement in
shallow slides. Brush layers consist of live branches
which are placed in trenches or between layers of
compacted fill (Figure 5). Live stakes or live poles
are stems cut from live trees and installed vertically
or in a direction perpendicular to the slope (Wu,
2007). Live poles (Steele et al., 2004) consisting of
willow stems,
stems with diameter of 4‐10cm
4 10cm and length
of about 2m, were used to stabilize shallow slides
(Figure 6).

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Figure 5: Schematic diagram of brush 
l
layering (After Huat
( f et al., 2008)
l )

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Figure 6: Schematic diagram of Live 
Pole (After Huat
l ( f et al., 2008)
l )

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The major parts of the root system are shown in
Figure 7 below.
below The root crown or root stock
includes the bases of the lateral roots and the
concentration of small roots beneath the root
crown. It may be spherical or heart‐shaped.

Plate‐shaped root systems are composed mainly of

lateral roots. The diameter of lateral roots decreases
rapidly
dl with h the
h distance
d f
from the
h root crown. The h
relationship between the dimensions of different
components of a root system has also been studied.
studied
The mass which contains most of lateral roots is
sometimes called the root mat.

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Figure 7: Root mat of a tree (After 
Huat et al., 2008)
l )

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THANK YOU!
THANK YOU!

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