General Slope Stability Analysis

A statically accurate limiting equilibrium procedure is developed for the numerical treatment of nonhomogeneous earth slopes. The analysis includes a variety of loads including a static approximation for the influence of seismic forces. It may be carried out with use of total or effective strength parameters and yields a factor of safety on strength for any specified potential slip surface of physically reasonable shape. An assumption regarding the distribution of total normal stress on the sliding surface is required. An example giving results for several loading conditions, and comparisons with previous methods are included. Assuming the availability of a high speed computer, the engineer is provided an additional tool for estimating the stability of complex earth slopes.