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Large scale field tests for slope stabilizations made with flexible facings

Conference Paper · September 2013

DOI: 10.1201/b15683-111

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Large scale field tests for slope stabilizations made with flexible facings
M. Cała
AGH University of Science and Technology, Kraków, Poland
M. Stolz & P. Baraniak & A. Rist
Bern University of Applied Sciences, Burgdorf, Switzerland
A. Roduner
Geobrugg AG, Romanshorn, Switzerland

ABSTRACT: Flexible slope stabilization systems made from wire meshes in combination with nailing are
widely used in practice to stabilize soil and rock slopes (Figure 1.). They are economical solutions and a good
alternative to measures based on rigid concrete liner walls or massive supporting structures. Apart from de-
signs using conventional steel wire, meshes from high-tensile steel wire are now also available on the market.
The latest can absorb substantially higher forces and transfer them onto the nailing. Special concepts have
been developed for the dimensioning of flexible surface stabilization systems for use on steep slopes in more
or less homogeneous soil or heavily weathered loosened rock, but also on fissured and layered rock in which
the bodies liable to break out are determined by fissure and layer surfaces. Stabilizations implemented in soil
and rock, with and without vegetated face, confirm that these measures are suitable for practical application
(Cała, et al. 2012). The research work presented in this paper explains the latest verification of the existing
dimensioning concept for superficial slope protection system based on test results coming from a large-scale
field test setup. Thereby the influence of properties of the facing as well as deformations under loading and
forces on the nails are tested and the results will be presented.

1 INTRODUCTION derstand better how the nailing and slope facing

work together and what the role of mesh is in bear-
Various aspects of slope stability are the subjects of ing and transferring the forces to the nailing system,
study of many fields of engineering such as road and first results of the full scale tests, setup and equip-
rail engineering, mining. There are numerous meth- ment that was used will be presented in this article.
ods for stabilizing slopes that can be chosen depend- The entire project is supported with CTI Swiss
ing on the scale of the occurrence, technical condi- funds and lead by Bern University of Applied Sci-
tions and terrain characteristics. To enable the best ences with cooperation with Geobrugg AG and
possible solution it is necessary to take into consid- AGH University of Science and Technology.
eration several variables that could impact the effec-
tiveness of such protection. At the same time the
technical and economic aspects of the proposed con-
struction need to be taken into account. Another as-
pect to be considered is whether the construction is
environmentally friendly. It is also important for the
slope stabilization to ensure not only its global but
also superficial stability.
In many cases the optimum solution is to use
nailing in combination with the flexible facing sys-
tems. It ensures global stability (nailing) and pro-
tects the slope against the possible local instabilities
and rockfalls. High effectiveness of such solutions
was proved in the recent years’ installations.
It can be claimed that the aspects of nailing are
relatively well known, whereas, in the case of slope Figure 1. Example of slope stabilization with the use of nails
facing there are still many questions. In order to un- and flexible facing, Source: Geobrugg Polska Sp. z o.o.
2 OBJECTIVES unrolled on round skids bearing on a concrete base
plate. The inclinable box was a rigid steel construc-
The objective of the full scale tests is to investigate tion whose floor and inner walls were faced with
the nature of failure in the superficial layer of slopes wooden planks. The inner width, length and filling
stabilized by nailing and steel mesh system. The in- height of the box were 12.08 m, 9.99 m and 1.20 m,
formation gathered will be used as the basis for the respectively. These dimensions resulted in a total
creation of the overall concept measuring such oc- volume of 144.82 m3. This also means that, depend-
currences, what will enable its further optimization. ing on the soil, total weight of 300 tons of fill-up
The data will also allow for the creation and calibra- material might be expected. In order to ensure that
tion of the calculation model which is based on the the failure plain developed within the soil but not be-
3D numerical methods. Until now, only 2D numeri- tween the soil and the floor of the box, squared tim-
cal calculations concerning interaction between soil, ber bars of 60 mm width and 30 mm height were
nails and mesh were performed (Cała & Kowalski, fastened across the wooden floor at a distance of
2008) 500 mm.
In the full scale tests it is planned to investigate a
number of different types of steel meshes in the
same testing setup. Several types of soil samples
will be used and the arrangement of nails will vary.
The tests are to be conducted by changing the incli-
nation angle of the box. This is done by raising one
of its sides while the opposite side is positioned on
the concrete panel. The change of inclination should
be done continuously and gradually at 5-degree in-
tervals until one of the system’s elements fails or un-
til it reaches the maximum inclination of 85 degrees.
Recorded during the tests are: the forces and the
moments of forces, forces on the mesh and in the
connections between the mesh and nails as well as
failures of the mesh and nails when pressured with
the sliding soil.

3 FULL SCALE TESTS

The first series of tests was conducted in Winterthur,

Switzerland, at the end of 2012 and beginning of
2013. The aim of the tests was to check whether the
tests objectives were correct and to ensure the set-
tings would imitate the real slopes conditions in the
best possible way.
Thanks to the initial tests also the methodology
and the process of conducted tests could be im-
proved and the choice of measurement equipment
could be more adequate.
3.1 Test set-up
The experimental setup allowed to physically simu-
late a slope section in unconsolidated soil reinforced
with a flexible facing and untensioned anchors (Fig-
ure 2). Therefore, soil material was filled in a large
inclinable box and covered by a flexible facing
which was tightened onto the surface by anchors in-
stalled at the floor of the box and fastened at the
edges of the box by wire ropes. Then the box was
lifted at one end by a crane while the other end was
Figure 2. Experimental setup for the full scale test of nails and
flexible facing combination.
In the experimental setup anchors of the type
GEWI with 28 mm diameter were used. In order to
simulate the injection of the grout around the nails,
which in reality results in pile skin friction, steel
bars for the experimental setup were prefabricated
with a mantle of grout filled into a surrounding flut-
ed PVC-tube with 100 diameter. This grout mantle
started about 300 mm below the upper end of the
steel bar in order to fasten the spike plates by a
screw nut. At the bottom part the nail was welded to
the steel plate (250 mm x 250 mm) which was in the
next step screwed onto a bigger steel plate (500 mm
x 700 mm) which was finally fastened to one of the
steel beams under the wooden floor of the box. Due
to various holes in the bigger steel plates the nail po-
sitions could be varied allowing their distance to be
chosen freely within a large range. Nails pattern,
type and diameter were chosen as for applications of
flexible facings in reality. It is important to note that
during the testing phase nails were installed the way
that the rows of nails were offset to each other by
half of a horizontal nails distance. This means that
the maximum possible local body liable to break out
between the individual nails was limited to a width
“a” and a length of 2 x “b” as shown in the follow-
ing figure (Figure 3) (Geobrugg AG, 2011).
Figure 3. Arrangement of the nails with an offset.
In the final version of the experimental setup the
flexible facing was fastened along the four margins
of the box by means of wire ropes, strong enough to
bear all expected forces (rope diameter of 22 mm
and rapture load of 305 kN). The top boundary rope
was fastened to the steel frame in the way simulating
additional row of upper nails. The bottom boundary
rope was fastened to the lowest row of the nails in
order to imitate the real boundary conditions of pro-
tected continuous slope. To avoid slipping off the
fill-up material through the individual mesh of flexi-
ble facing, geotextile with smaller openings was
used. This was also to simulate commonly used ero-
sion control mat under the steel mesh.
For the first three tests of the series shingle
(16/32) was used as a fill-up material. It was
changed into recycling gravel (0/45) for the follow-
ing tests. The parameters of both materials are pre-
sented in table 1. Every time after inserting the new
layer into the box the fill-up material was compact-
ed. In the top layer around the nail heads small de-
pressions were formed in order to allow mesh to be
pretensioned.
Table 1. Parameters of fill-up materials.
Soil type Grain size Friction Cohesion Bulk
[mm] angle [kPa] density
[°] [kg/m3]
Shingle 16/32 34 0 1670
Recycling gravel 0/45 38 0 1800
3.2 Response variables and instrumentation
As response variables (1) the forces in the upper and
lower wire ropes, (2) the downslope displacement of
one anchor head, (3) the surface deformation of the
artificial slope in three-dimensions, as well as (4) the
inclination angle at failure of the protection system
were measured. The forces in the wire ropes were
measured by means of load cells. The downslope
displacement was measured by pull-cable encoder
which was installed in stable position onto the steel
frame and the cable itself was attached to the nail
head in the second row from the top. This allowed to
measure nail head deformation without an influence
from the boundaries of the box or from the occurring
deformation.
The load-cells and the pull-cable encoder meas-
ured continuously throughout the whole test. Re-
ceived data were transferred and formatted by a
measuring amplifier (HBM, Spider 8) and finally
stored on a laptop. The electrical cables from the
sensors to the amplifier had to be protected from the
consequences of potential slope failures and superfi-
cial rolling and saltation of grains by means of an
adequate cable guiding. Furthermore, the cables’
length had to account for the increasing distance be-
tween the sensors and the amplifier when inclining
the box and thus to prevent rupture.
The three-dimensional surface deformations of
the slope were measured by the Terradata AG com-
pany at every inclination step using a laser-scanner
(Riegl VZ-400). The angular horizontal and vertical
measuring resolution was set to 0.02 degrees result-
ing in a spatial resolution between 7 mm and 10 mm
for the given scanning distance between 20 m and
30 m. Higher resolutions were intentionally avoided
in order to limit the scanning time and the amount of
data.
To measure displacement of the nail heads by
means of laser scanning, white balls with a diameter
of ~100 mm were placed on top of the nails.
The inclination angle of the artificial slope was
continuously measured during each test by a simple
manual goniometer mounted onto one skid at the
lower margin of the box and also with the inclination
sensor measuring amplifier (HBM Spider 8). By
these continuous measurements also the inclination
angles at which any part of the artificial slope failed
were recorded. Such failures were defined as events
of discontinuous movements, namely when the soil
grains underneath the flexible facing started to roll,
when a complete layer started to slide downslope,
when grains started to pass the holes of the mesh in a
large volume, when a nail noticeably broke, or when
the flexible facing or any other element was dam-
aged.
The load on the crane hook was measured at 30
degrees inclination of the testing box, sporadically
also at higher inclinations. This information was
mainly important to control that the carrying load
did not exceed the crane’s limit of 500 tons. Howev- Figure 4. Displacement of equipped anchor head and boundary
er, the measurements were also interesting for the re- rope forces depending on inclination.
sult of the tests.
Figure 5. shows the final elongation of the mesh
reached at the inclination of the slope of 85 degrees.
4 TEST RESULTS

At the time of releasing this paper the first series of

eight individual tests were performed. Due to the
fact that during the first four tests unexpected setup
defects were found all tests results were classified as
the provisional tests of the equipment. Because the
results of the last three tests of the first series have
not been analysed yet, in this article only the out-
comes of the first liable test (test number 5) are in-
cluded. It is expected that all the results of series one
and series two will be presented soon.
Test no.5 was carried out with the high tensile
strength steel wire mesh (mesh type TECCO 65/3
made of 3mm diameter wires, steel strength 1770 Figure 5. Test 5 - Visualization of the soil surface resulting
MPa). The test itself was performed from the initial from laser scanning at 85degrees. Elevations and depressions
setup inclination of 0 degrees. However, the first relative to the initial planar reference surface are indicated by
colors with the corresponding values given in meters. Source:
forces in the load cells were measured at the inclina- Terradata AG, 2012.
tion of 30 degrees. This was probably due to the fric-
tion angle of the fill-up material. Starting from that
point all inclination changes were performed in as- 5 CONCLUSIONS AND OUTLOOK
sumed intervals of 5 degrees. The original data con-
tains the measured response variables, i.e. the dis- It can be concluded that the method and setup for
placement of the nail head as well as the forces in flexible slope facing in large scale gives a great op-
the upper and lower boundary ropes as function of portunity to have better understanding of the nature
time (Figure 4). of superficial slope movements and further im-
First deformations of the slope surface and ten- provement of protection measures. It is believed that
sioning of the mesh were visible at the inclination of the following series of experiments will show ad-
45degrees, however, up to this point the measure- vantages and limits of application of all tested mesh
ment showed the displacement of 80 mm of the types. For the future the test setup will be used as a
equipped nail head. At 50 degrees the first slips of tool for optimization nails grid and flexible facing
the surface were observed close to the lower bound- depending on local ground conditions. These exper-
ary of the box. At 55 degrees the cracks due to the iments can also be used to check the current stage of
slips reached halfway between the lowest and the calculation methods and as a tool for their improve-
second row of nails. When the slope was inclined to ment as well as the basis for the numerical model-
85 degrees the mesh was elongated further, up to ling of the entire complex slope stabilization systems
400 mm, but the slope remained stable and the mate- based on nails and flexible facing.
rial was fully kept back without any destruction of
installed mesh or nails.
6 REFERENCES

Cała M., Kowalski M. 2008. Reinforced slope stability analysis

with FLAC. Continuum and distinct element numerical
modeling in geo-engineering. 1st international FLAC/DEM
Symposium : Minneapolis, Minnesota. (eds. R. Hart, Ch.
Detournay, P. Cundall) Minneapolis: Itasca Consulting
Group, Inc.
Cała, M., Flum D., Roduner A., Rüegger, R., Wartmann, S.
2012. TECCO Slope Stabilization System and RUVOLUM
Dimensioning Method. Bad Langesalza: Beltz Bad
Langesalza GmbH.
Geobrugg AG. 2011. TECCO Slope Stabilization System Sum-
mary of Published Technical Papers 1998 – 2011.

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