Abstract:
The sensitivity of the factor of safety (FS) for pile-reinforced slopes to analysis technique and dimensionality is evaluated. This analysis is carried out by conducting limit equilibrium plus laterally loaded pile analysis (uncoupled) and finite element methods (coupled) for pile-reinforced slopes in a fully randomized block design manner for 2D and 3D spaces. Tukey's honestly significant difference (HSD) method is applied to evaluate the results. No significant differences of FS among the study methods are shown by the comparative study at the applied significance level. Nevertheless, an evaluation of the confidence intervals given indicated practical FS differences as large as 0.37 when performing 3D finite element analysis compared to 2D limit equilibrium results. From the results, recommendations for analysis and design of pile-reinforced slopes are given.