Probabilistic Assessment of Slope Stability That Considers the Spatial Variability of Soil Properties
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 136, Issue 7
Abstract
In this paper, a numerical procedure for probabilistic slope stability analysis is presented. This procedure extends the traditional limit equilibrium method of slices to a probabilistic approach that accounts for the uncertainties and spatial variation of the soil strength parameters. In this study, two-dimensional random fields were generated based on a Karhunen-Loève expansion in a fashion consistent with a specified marginal distribution function and an autocorrelation function. A Monte Carlo simulation was then used to determine the statistical response based on the generated random fields. This approach makes no assumption about the critical failure surface. Rather, the critical failure surface corresponding to the input random fields of soil properties is searched during the process of analysis. A series of analyses was performed to verify the application potential of the proposed method and to study the effects of uncertainty due to the spatial heterogeneity on the stability of slope. The results show that the proposed method can efficiently consider the various failure mechanisms caused by the spatial variability of soil property in the probabilistic slope stability assessment.
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Information
Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 136 • Issue 7 • July 2010
Pages: 975 - 984
Copyright
© 2010 ASCE.
History
Received: Jul 29, 2009
Accepted: Dec 20, 2009
Published online: Dec 28, 2009
Published in print: Jul 2010
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