Numerical Investigation on the Stability of Soil-Cement Columns Reinforced Riverbank

Abstract

This paper presents a numerical study on the stability of columns reinforced riverbank along a river delta region in Viet Nam. First, an array of numerical analyses based on the limit equilibrium method (LEM) incorporated in GeoSlope was conducted on a typical geometry of a riverbank reinforced without or with soil-cement columns in a two-dimensional plane strain condition to estimate the riverbank safety factor. The beneficial effects of column reinforcement of the riverbank stability have been analysed and discussed in detail. Subsequently, another series of parametric study on the influence of a number of columns and the shear strength parameters of columns on the riverbank stability has also been performed and thoroughly discussed to provide a better understanding of the interaction between columns and soil along the riverbank. The numerical findings show that the columns reinforcement of riverbank can significantly enhance the riverbank stability by means of the safety factor improvement. The predicted results also indicate that the increase in the number of columns increased the riverbank safety factor subjected to a constant river water level. Moreover, the shear strength parameters of soil-cement columns were found to have notable effects on the stability of riverbank reinforced with columns.