A Displacement-Dependent Limit-Equilibrium Slice Method for Slope Stability Analysis
Publication: International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 23, Issue 6
Abstract
Displacement and factor of safety are two crucial pieces of information about slope stability, but the traditional limit-equilibrium slice method has a significant defect; that is, it cannot reflect slope displacement. In this paper, a displacement-dependent limit-equilibrium slice method is proposed based on the soil shear constitutive model and Morgenstern–Price assumption of interslice forces to establish the relationship between the factor of safety and displacement. In addition to the overall factor of safety, point factors of safety and point displacements can also be obtained using the proposed method to characterize the displacement-dependent slope stability. The point factor of safety and shear displacement of each soil slice calculated using the proposed method are slightly higher and smaller than those calculated by the modified displacement-dependent Janbu method. The iterative process of the proposed method is simpler and more stable than that of the modified displacement-dependent Janbu method. Calculation results of four examples show that the point factors of safety at the upper and lower ends of the slide mass are generally smaller than those at the middle part of the slip body, and the shear displacement of the soil slice near the slope top is generally larger than those at the other positions. The proposed method associates the factors of safety with slope displacements, which allows us to quantitatively assess the slope stability immediately in practice by monitoring the displacements of some key points on it.
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Data Availability Statement
All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in the article. Some or all data used are available from the corresponding author by request.
Acknowledgments
This research is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51578466) and the Construction S&T Project of the Department of Transportation of Sichuan Province (Grant No. 2020A01).
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Published In
International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 23 • Issue 6 • June 2023
Copyright
© 2023 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jul 31, 2022
Accepted: Dec 19, 2022
Published online: Mar 22, 2023
Published in print: Jun 1, 2023
Discussion open until: Aug 22, 2023
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