DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS FOR SOIL-NAILED WALLS AND SLOPES

Gian Paulo D. Reyes 1

Regine Chloe S. Albea 1
Jenna Carmela C. Pallarca 1
John Erickson S. Delos Santos 1
Michael Paolo V. Follosco, MSCE 1
Roy Anthony C. Luna, MSCE 1,2
Ramon D. Quebral, PhD 1
Benjamin R. Buensuceso, Jr., PhD 2
2

AMH Philippines, Inc., Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines

Institute of Civil Engineering, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines

Abstract :
The utilization of soil nails can be a cost-effective solution to stabilize cut slopes or grade-separated roads and
highways. This involves a passive steel reinforcement encased in grout and a shotcrete or concrete cover applied
on the slope or excavation face to provide continuity. Soil nail derives its strength by mobilizing the bond
strength between the grout and the surrounding soil. This technique is applicable to both soil and soil-like
materials such as soft rocks or weathered rocks.
In the absence of local codes and specifications governing the design and construction of soil nails, the provisions
of US Federal Highways Administration (FHWA) can be adopted.
This paper presents the various considerations in the stability analysis and design of soil-nailed walls and slopes.
Modeling and analysis using limit-equilibrium approach are discussed. Case studies involving a grade-separated
road project, and a steep soil slope are presented.

Key words : Soil nails, Stability analysis, Limit equilibrium approach, Retaining wall, Slope stabilization

INTRODUCTION

The use of soil nails in stabilizing slopes and

excavations has substantially increased during the last
decade because it is a cost-effective alternative to
conventional retaining structures. In the United States,
the widespread use of the soil nailing technology was
due to the fact that soil nail walls have been
demonstrated to be technically feasible and costeffective, especially in top-to-bottom excavations for
temporary and permanent applications.
Soil nailing was first used in early 1960s as a support
system for underground excavations in rocks known as
the New Austrian Tunneling Method (NATM). This
technique involves a passive steel reinforcement (e.g.,
rockbolts, soil nails) encased in grout and the
application of reinforced shotcrete. The strength of this

support system relies on the mobilization of the tensile

strength of the steel, as well as the bond strength
between the grout and the surrounding ground.
In the succeeding years, soil nails have been
subsequently used in highway projects with high-cut
slopes, bridge abutment cut walls and deep foundation
excavations in both Europe and United States.
Some of the advantages of soil nail walls are: 1) can be
applied on both soils and weathered rocks, 2) there is no
need to embed structural elements at the bottom of the
excavation, 3) installation is relatively quick and uses
less construction materials as well as smaller equipment,
and 4) cost is relatively low compared to conventional
retaining structures.
With the objective of developing the soil nail
technology as support system in various geotechnical

projects, the US Federal Highway Administration

(FHWA) developed a design guideline for soil nail
walls. The manual incorporates the design methods,
construction procedures, and construction monitoring.
In the Philippines, however, there are no local codes
and specifications governing the design and
construction of soil nail walls. The provisions of FHWA
can be adopted in establishing the stability and design
of soil-nailed walls in the country.

States and Service Limit States.

3.1 Strength Limit States
These refer to failure modes where the applied
loads induces stresses that are greater than the
strength of the whole soil nail wall system or its
individual components, which causes the structure
to be unstable or collapse. The strength limit states
are classified as:

COMPONENTS OF SOIL NAIL

The basic elements of a soil nail wall are presented in

FIG. 1.

External failure mode

Internal failure mode
Facing connection failure mode

3.2 Service Limit States

These refer to conditions where the normal and safe
operation of soil nail wall structure is considered.
For soil nail walls, the main criterion for safety is
excessive wall deformation.

Fig. 1 Basic components of soil nail wall (FHWA)

1.

Steel reinforcing bars are the main component of

soil nail wall. Placed in pre-drilled holes and
grouted in place.

2.

Grout are placed in pre-drilled holes to hold the

steel bars and at the same time transfer stresses
from the ground to the nail.

3.

Nail head, washers, and bearing plate are

structural components that attach the steel nail to
the facing.

4.

Temporary and permanent facing provides

continuity of the structure and supports the exposed
soil.

5.

Geocomposite strip drain provides collection and

drainage of seepage water flowing from the
surrounding ground.

LIMIT STATES

POTENTIAL FAILURE MODES

There are (3) potential failure modes needed to be

considered in designing soil nail walls: External failure
mode, internal failure mode, and facing failure mode.
The external failure mode refers to the development of
potential failure surfaces passing through or behind the
soil nails. The internal failure modes refer to the failure
in the load transfer mechanisms between the soil, nail,
and grout. Potential failures may occur when the
induced stresses in the nail/s are greater than the bond
strength developed between the soil and grout or greater
than the tensile capacity of the nail. The facing
connection failure modes refer to the potential failure
modes at the facing-nail head connection and is
designed similar to typical structural calculations
involving concrete and steel reinforcements.
The design considerations are based on these failure
modes and are presented in the following sections.

EXTERNAL STABILITY

As with conventional retaining structures, the stability

of a soil nail wall system is assessed by three (3) types
of analyses: Global Stability, Sliding Stability, and
Bearing Capacity analyses.
5.1 Global Stability

The analysis and design of soil nail walls considers two

(2) limit states or limiting conditions, the Strength Limit

Similar to typical slope stability analyses, soil nail

wall systems will be analyzed by Limit-

Equilibrium Methods. The soil nail wall mass is

generally treated as a block, global forces and
moment equilibrium are established, and a factor of
safety that relates resisting and driving forces is
calculated.

The factor of safety against sliding (FSSL) is

calculated as follows:

 =


  
=
(2)

 


5.3 Bearing Capacity

In soil nail design, the bearing capacity of the soil
is not typically a concern unless the soil nail wall is
excavated in fine-grained, soft soils. Bearing
capacity failure occurs when the unbalanced load
induced by the excavation causes the bottom soil to
heave. The factor of safety against heave (FSH) is
given by Terzaghis equation:

 =

 

 





(3)

Where






Fig. 2 Limit-equilibrium analysis of soil nail walls

The Factor of Safety (FS) is expressed as the ratio of
resisting forces to the driving or overturning forces.

 =


 
(1)

 

5.2 Sliding Stability

This stability analysis considers the ability of the
soil nail wall to resist sliding along the base of the
retained soil/rock mass against the lateral earth
pressures behind the soil nails. In sliding stability
analysis, the soil nail wall system is considered as a
rigid block in which horizontal lateral earth forces
is acting.

=
=
=
=

Undrained shear strength of soil

Bearing capacity factor (based on Terzhagi)
Unit weight of soil behind wall
Height of wall

INTERNAL STABILITY

The two (2) most common internal failure modes in soil

nail walls are nail pullout failure and nail tensile failure.
6.1 Nail Pullout Failure
Nail pullout failure occurs when the pullout
capacity per unit length of soil nail is inadequate
and/or the nail length is insufficient. The pullout
capacity of soil nails depends on the bond strength
developed between the soil-grout interface, as well
as the size of the nail.
The mobilized pullout strength is generally given
by the following equation:
 =   =   (4)

 =

Where

Fig. 3 Sliding stability analysis of soil nail walls

=
=
=
=


(5)


Pullout capacity
Maximum design nail tensile force
Pullout capacity per unit length
Ultimate bond strength

=
=
=

Length of nail
Diameter of drill hole
Factor of safety against pullout failure

 =

Where
6.2 Nail Tensile Failure

Nail tensile failure occurs when the longitudinal

force developed along the soil nail exceeds the nail
bar tensile capacity, given by the following
equation:
 =   (6)

 =

Where

=
=
=
=
=


(7)


Nail bar tensile capacity

Maximum design nail tensile force
Cross-sectional area of nail bar
Yield strength of nail bar
Factor of safety against nail tensile failure

FACING CONNECTION STABILITY

The three (3) most common facing failure modes
are flexure failure, punching shear failure, and
headed-stud failure.

7.1 Flexure Failure

Flexure failure occurs when there is excessive
bending beyond the flexural capacity of the facing
and is considered separately for both temporary and
permanent facings. The main driving forces that
cause flexural failure in the wall facings are the
lateral earth pressures.

!
&&
 &
"# + # $ %
'(
)
265
&

 *+# (8)

  =

!
&&
 &
"# + # $ %
'(
)
265
&


= Factor that considers non-uniform soil

pressure behind facing
= Reinforcement cross-sectional area per
unit width in the vertical direction at nail head
= Reinforcement cross-sectional area per
unit width in the vertical direction at midspan
= Reinforcement cross-sectional area per
unit width in the horizontal direction at nail
head
= Reinforcement cross-sectional area per
unit width in the horizontal direction at
midspan
= Nail horizontal spacing
= Nail vertical spacing
= Tensile yield strength of reinforcement
= Factor of safety against facing flexure
failure
= Design nail head tensile force

7.2 Punching Shear Failure

Punching shear failure is a failure that occurs
around the nail head and is evaluated separately for
both temporary and permanent facings. For
temporary facings, the bearing-plate connection is
considered. For permanent facings, the headed-stud
connection is evaluated.
The equation for facing punching shear capacity is
given by
 = ! , (11)

, = 330- [*+#] & (12)

Based on yield-line theory concepts, the facing

flexure capacity, RFF, can be estimated as the
minimum of the following:
  =


(10)


 =

Where


(13)


= Correction factor for support capacity of

soil (usually 1)
= Punching shear force
= Effective diameter of conical failure
surface
= Effective depth of conical surface
= Factor of safety against facing punching
shear failure

 *+# (9)

7.3 Headed-stud Failure

Headed-stud tensile failure refers to the potential
failures that may occur in the connectors (headedstuds) providing anchorage to the nail in the
permanent facing. The nail head capacity against
tensile failure of headed-studs, RHT, is given by

program, Rocscience Slide v6.0. On the other hand,

the design of the soil nail walls were based on the
FHWA design manual and a computer program
(Caltrans SNAIL), which follows the provisions of
the FHWA manual, was used to facilitate the
computations.

 =    (14)

 =

Where


(15)


= Number of headed-studs
= Cross-sectional area of headed-stud shaft
= Tensile yield strength of headed-stud
= Factor of safety against facing headedstud failure

Fig. 4 Global stability analysis by LimitEquilibrum Method (Rocscience Slide v6.0)

CASE STUDIES

8.1 Soil Nail Walls as Slope Protection for a GradeSeparated Road Project
A road project intended to connect a minor arterial
road to a major road is currently being constructed.
The construction of the road involves a number of
high-cut slopes and tunneling through the soil/rock
formation. The project site is generally underlain
by tuff formation, which is composed of weathered
rocks also known as adobe. The site subsoil is
generally composed of medium dense to dense
sands and sedimentary rocks. To stabilize the
slopes and tunnels, soil nails with reinforced
shotcrete as facing were applied. This slope
stabilization and protection method provides a
more cost-effective solution compared to the initial
solution of reinforced concrete retaining walls.
A vertical cut slope, at a maximum of 7m in height,
was to be stabilized. To establish stability and
safety of the slope, the external, internal, and facing
connection stabilities of the soil nail wall design
were carried out. The slope protection scheme was
to have three (3) layers of soil nails, 6m long each,
with shotcrete facing of 75mm thickness. The nails
are spaced at 1.5m both horizontally and vertically.
A uniform load of 20 kN/m was applied on top of
the slope to account for the traffic loading. Both
static and seismic conditions were analyzed.
The external stability was assessed by LimitEquilibrium Methods through the aid of a computer

Fig. 5 Internal and facing stability analysis using

CALTRANS SNAIL

Results
TABLE 1 shows the summary of results for the
external (global, sliding and bearing capacity),
internal and facing stability analyses. No headedstuds were included in the design. The stability
analyses yielded adequate factors of safety.

Table 1. Summary of results

Type of
Analysis
Global
Sliding
Bearing
Capacity
Seismic
Internal
(Facing)

Results
Minimum FS
Minimum FS

2.40
9.35

Minimum FS

17.87

Minimum FS
Service Load @ Nail
Flexural
Punching Shear

1.67
49.2 kN
66.0 > 49.2 kN
146.6 > 49.2 kN

Results

8.2 Soil Nail as Slope Protection Measure

A landslide mitigating measure is being
recommended for an existing power plant switch
yard to prevent further slope failure on its vicinity.
The existing slope failure is located at the drainage
outfall of the site approximately fifty (50) meters
from the switch yard, and mode of failure is
rotational slip - caused by the build-up of
porewater pressure induced by infiltration,
saturating the slope and causing slope movement
(width of about twenty meters). This apparently led
to the slope failure at the outfall of the drainage
canal and caused the washing out of the cascading
canal downstream of it. As a mitigating measure,
soil nails with shotcrete facing were utilized to
prevent further slope failure.
The site is composed of intercalating layers of
dense to very dense silty sand, and andesitic rocks
were observed at approximately 20m depth below
ground. The slope is about 25m high with an
inclination of about 45. The proposed soil nail
scheme was to provide four (4) layers of soil nails
with 12m length spaced at 1.5m out-of-plane and
2m vertical.
As in the previous site presented, the external
stability of the proposed soil nail scheme was
assessed by Limit-Equilibrium Methods using
Rocscience Slide v6.0. The modeling took into
consideration static (or normal condition) loading
and pseudo-static loads (earthquake).

TABLE 2 shows the summary of results for the

global stability analysis. The stability analysis
yielded adequate factors of safety.
Table 2. Summary of results
Case
r u*
kh**
FS
1
0.1
0.0
1.317
2
0.2
0.0
1.289
3
0.3
0.0
1.199
4
0.4
0.0
1.097
5
0.1
0.1
1.183
6
0.2
0.1
1.096
*ru = coefficient that models the pore pressure as a
fraction of the vertical earth pressure for each slice
**kh = horizontal pseudo-static coefficient

CONCLUSION
As demonstrated, soil nails can provide an
alternative slope stabilization method for both
grade-separated road project and natural slopes. A
local design guideline is evidently warranted for
uniform analysis and design.

Fig. 6 Global stability analysis by LimitEquilibrum Method (Rocscience Slide v6.0)

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors acknowledge the assistance provided by the
technical staff of AMH Philippines, Inc. in providing
project data and references.
REFERENCES
Abramson, L.W., Lee, T.S., Sharma, S. Boyce,. G.M.
(2002). Slope Stabi;lity and Stabilization Methods.
2nd Edition..
Das, Braja M. (2006). Principles of Geotechnical
Engineering. 5th Edition.ines Press.
Federal Highway Administration (1998). Manual for
Design and Construction Monitoring of Soil Nail
Walls.
Lazarte, C., Elias, V., Espinoza, D., Sabatini, P., (2003).
Federal Highway Administration - Geotechnical
Engineering Circular No. 7 Soil Nail Walls (FHWA0IF-03-017).