Analysis of Delayed Failure in Sloping Excavations
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical Engineering
Volume 119, Issue 9
Abstract
The paper describes a finite element technique that takes account of transient effects through a Biot analysis, enabling coupling of pore pressure variations to a nonlinear soil stress‐strain law. The algorithm can retrieve both drained and undrained solutions as special cases and has been verified against some existing solutions for time‐dependent failure of soil masses. The technique is then applied to the transient stability of excavated soil slopes. Long‐term instability is modeled by allowing the pore suctions, initially generated by the excavation process, to dissipate. For the slope under analysis, the coefficient is seen to have a significant influence on the undrained (short‐term) factor of safety, but little effect on the drained (long‐term) value.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
1.
Biot, M. A. (1941). “General theory of three‐dimensional consolidation.” J. Appl. Physics, 12, 155–164.
2.
Bishop, A. W., and Bjerrum, L. (1960). “The relevence of the triaxial test to the solution of stability problems.” Proc. ASCE Conf. on Shear Strength of Cohesive Soils, ASCE, 437.
3.
Bishop, A. W., and Morgenstern, N. R. (1960). “Stability coefficients for earth slopes.” Géotechnique, 10(4), 129–150.
4.
Bjerrum, L. (1967). “Progressive failure in slopes of consolidated plastic clay and clay shales.” J. Soil Mech. and Found. Engrg. Div., ASCE, 93(5), 1–49.
5.
Griffiths, D. V. (1981). “Computation of strain softening behaviour.” Proc. Symp. on Implementation of Computer Procedures and Stress Strain Laws in Geotech. Engrg., C. S. Desai, and S. K. Saxena, eds., Acorn Press, Durham, N.C., 591–604.
6.
Griffiths, D. V. (1985). The effect of pore fluid compressibility on failure loads in elastoplastic soils. Int. J. Numer. Anal. Methods Geomech., 9(3), 253–259.
7.
Griffiths, D. V., Hicks, M. A., and Li, C. O. (1991). Transient passive earth pressure analyses.” Géotechnique, 41(4), 615–620.
8.
Griffiths, D. V., and Li, C. O. (1989). “Accurate pore pressure calculation in undrained analysis.” Engrg. Comput. (Swansea, Wales), 6(4), 339–342.
9.
Henkel, D. J. (1957). “Investigation of two long‐term failures in London clay slopes at wood green and northolt.” Proc., 4th Int. Conf. Soil Mech. Foundation Engrg., ICSMFE, 315–320.
10.
Hicks, M. A. (1990). “Numerically modelling the stress‐strain behaviour of soils,” PhD thesis, Univ. of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom.
11.
Hicks, M. A., and Smith, I. M. (1986). “Influence of rate of porepressure generation on the stress‐strain behaviour of soils.” Int. J. Numer. Methods Engrg., 22(3), 597–621.
12.
Hwang, C. T., Morgenstern, N. R., and Murray, D. W. (1971). “On solutions of plane strain consolidation problems by finite element methods.” Can. Geotech. J., 8(1), 109–118.
13.
Li, C. O. (1988). “Finite element analyses of seepage and stability problems in geomechanics,” PhD thesis, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom.
14.
Li, C. O., and Griffiths, D. V. (1988). “Finite element modelling of rapid drawdown.” Proc., 6th Int. Conf. Numerical Methods Geomech., G. Swoboda, ed., A. A. Balkema, Rotterdam, Netherlands, 1291–1296.
15.
Naylor, D. J. (1974). “Stresses in nearly incompressible materials by finite elements with application to the calculation of excess pore pressure.” Int. J. Numer. Methods Engrg., 8(3), 443–460.
16.
Potts, D. M., and Fourie, A. B. (1984). “The behaviour of retaining walls: results of a numerical experiment.” Géotechnique, 34(3), 383–404.
17.
Sandhu, R. S. (1981). “Finite element analysis of coupled deformation and fluid flow in porous media.” Numerical methods in geomechanics, J. B. Martins, ed., D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland, 203–228.
18.
Skempton, A. W. (1977). “Slope stability of cuttings in brown London clay.” Proc., 9th Int. Conf. Soil Mech. Foundation Engrg., ICSMFE, 261–270.
19.
Small, J. C., Booker, J. R., and Davis, E. H. (1976). “Elasto‐plastic consolidation of soil.” Int. J. Solids. Struct., 12, 431–448.
20.
Smith, I. M., and Griffiths, D. V. (1988). Programming finite element method. John Wiley and Sons, 2nd Ed., New York, N.Y.
21.
Smith, I. M., and Hobbs, R. (1976). “Biot analysis of consolidation beneath embankments.” Géotechnique, 26(1), 149–171.
22.
Terzaghi, K. (1936). “Stability of slopes in natural clay.” Proc., 1st Int. Conf. Soil Mech. Foundation Engrg., ICSMFE, 161–165.
23.
van Leussen, W., and Nieuwenhuis, I. D. (1984). “Soil mechanics aspects of dredging.” Géotechnique, 34(3), 359–381.
24.
Vaughan, P. R., and Walbancke, H. J. (1973). “Pore pressure changes and delayed failure of cutting slopes in overconsolidated clay.” Géotechnique, 23(4), 531–539.
25.
Zienkiewicz, O. C. (1977). The finite element method. 3rd Ed., McGraw‐Hill, New York, N.Y.
26.
Zienkiewicz, O. C., Humpheson, C., and Lewis, R. W. (1975). “Associated and nonassociated viscoplasticity and plasticity in soil mechanics.” Géotechnique, 25(4), 671–689.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
Copyright © 1993 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Apr 24, 1991
Published online: Sep 1, 1993
Published in print: Sep 1993
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.