ABSTRACT
Fill slopes have been constructed across the world for highway and railway embankments, road widening projects, earth dams, landfills and levees. This chapter investigates the effects of using soil nails for stabilising both loose and dense fill slopes. Geotechnical centrifuge modelling has become an alternative modelling tool to investigate failure mechanisms and deformations of slopes and soil structures. Dynamic centrifuge model tests on loose sand fill slopes with and without soil nails reveal that soil nails increase the stability of the slope against dynamic liquefaction failure. The use of soil nails in steep dense completely decomposed granite fill slopes can prevent the slope from forming a continuous slip plane and reduce settlements at the crest by about 50%. In addition, the presence of soil nails delays and minimizes crack formation at the crest and localized failures between nails near the toe.
