Amin Keshavarz

In this paper, the horizontal slice method (HSM) is employed to examine the stability of reinforced soil slopes. In this method, the soil mass is divided into a series of horizontal slices, and then the stability of each slice is examined. Unlike the previous studies, the formulation presented in this paper is able to analyse any type of the sliding surface. In addition to the log-spiral slip surface, the general slip surface is also examined. The genetic algorithm (GA) optimization method is employed to find the critical slip surface. Furthermore, the distribution of reinforcements along the depth is assumed to be uniform or non-uniform. Seismic effect is considered through the pseudo-static method. The HSM is implemented through a computer program written in MATLAB. After solving the problem, the critical slip surface, the amount of force and the length of reinforcements for the purpose of slope stabilization are obtained. Finally, the results are compared with other studies. These comparisons indicate that the method presented in this paper provides accurate results. The results also demonstrate that the general sliding surface is more critical than log-spiral sliding surface, thus leading to a larger amount of required reinforcement.