Numerical Analysis on the Sandy Slope Reinforced with Sand Bags

In recent decades, many expressways and railways have been construction in Western China. One of important projects is Menghua Railway as a major energy transportation line. Since most of its Contract I routine is located in Maowusu Desert, it seems the first choice is to utilize the sandy soil to construct the railway subgrade. The sand bag structure is explored as a reinforcement method for as railway sandy subgrade by numerical analysis. The Flac3D is selected as the calculation tool with its GeogridSEL structural element used to simulate the function of geotextile bag. It is assumed the geotextiles remain elastic in the calculation, and the failure occurs at the interface between geotextiles and surrounding soil. The results show that when bagged sand is used, the internal friction angle of sandy soil can be appropriately reduced, or a steeper slope can be used, but the friction angle between bagged sand and geotextile is required to be larger. At the same time, if the internal friction angle of sand is small, in order to obtain a smaller slope, geotextile is required to be subjected to a larger tensile stress.