Multi-level design approaches for slope-stabilizing piles

The optimum desing of slope stabilizing piles is a key point for an effective mitigation of the risk associated to landslides. Such an ambitious result requires efficient and reliable design approaches, allowing the engineer to face both with ultimate (in case of a localized failure mechanism is triggered in the slope) and serviceability limit states (when the focus is on the reduction of the soil displacement rate before the onset of the failure). The paper gives a contribution by presenting in a unified framework such multi-level design approaches, by specifically highlighting the most important geometrical and mechanical issues. The focus of the paper is always performance oriented, and particular importance is given to the precise definition of the soil displacement field