Effect of Soil Reinforcement with Geogrid in Controlling the Boiling Phenomenon of Slope under Fluctuations of Water Level

Seepage is one of the main reasons of slopes destructions. In slopes, due to fluctuations of groundwater depth or water level in an earth dam, a channel or river, gradient of seepage exceeds its critical value and the boiling phenomenon happens. In this study, the performance of geogrid plates in controlling the boiling of slope due to rising of groundwater level or drawdown of channel water surface was investigated using an experimental model. Geogrid plates with three lengths of 10, 15 and 20 cm and spacings of 1, 2, 3 and 4 cm were placed in the slope. The experiments were carried out at different depths of groundwater and channel water. Results showed that in the best model of geogrid (plates with 20 cm length and spacing of 1 cm) gradient of boiling increased 71.5 and 236 percent due to ascending of groundwater and descending of channel water conditions, respectively as compared to the control model. By increasing the length of plates or reducing the spacing between the plates, gradient of boiling increased. In all plates with different spacings, the number of non-occurrence of boiling in the descending condition of the channel water was less than that in the ascending condition of the groundwater. This is due to the simultaneous effects of hydrostatic and pore water pressure of the saturated soil of upper layers. In the ascending condition of the groundwater, boiling occurred mostly in the relative water depths equal to 0.167 and 0.333. In the descending of channel water conditions, critical status happened when the groundwater level was high.