Locating Global Critical Slip Surface Using the Morgenstern-Price Method and Optimization Technique
Publication: International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 14, Issue 2
Abstract
This paper presents a method to locate the global critical slip surface for slope profiles with complex geology. In this method, a readily available concise algorithm based on the Morgenstern-Price method is used to efficiently calculate the factor of safety for a slip surface. This algorithm is combined with an optimization technique to search for global critical slip surfaces based on a set of random initial slip surfaces. The proposed method is applied to analyze three example problems involving slope profiles with various degrees of complexity. This study indicates that the proposed global search strategy can locate the global critical slip surface regardless of the initial slip surface for slope profiles with low to moderate complexity. For more complex geologic slope profiles, however, the proposed search strategy may only be able to identify locally critical slip surfaces depending on the initial slip surface. To ensure that the global critical slip surfaces are identified, more random initial slip surfaces need to be considered. A sound engineering judgment may be combined with the global search algorithm presented in this study to locate global critical slip surfaces more efficiently.
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Acknowledgments
Support for the first author to conduct this study as a visiting student at Pennsylvania State University was provided by the China Scholarship Council. This support is gratefully acknowledged.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 14 • Issue 2 • April 2014
Pages: 319 - 325
Copyright
© 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Oct 17, 2012
Accepted: May 1, 2013
Published online: May 3, 2013
Published in print: Apr 1, 2014
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