Limit Analysis of Slope Stability by Rigid Finite-Element Method and Linear Programming Considering Rotational Failure
Publication: International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 13, Issue 6
Abstract
The authors present a numerical limit analysis on the slope stability in this paper using the rigid finite-element method (RFEM). The novelty of this study is the consideration of the rotational component of the centroid velocity for each element, as well as a generalized overturning failure criterion governing the element rotation. By combining the generalized rotation failure criterion with the Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion, the RFEM-based upper and lower bound limit analysis is formulated as a typical primal and dual linear programming problem and is solved effectively by a primal-dual interior-point method. The proposed formulation and methodology are validated by three classical soil or rock slope stability problems. Numerical results confirm the necessity of considering the rotation mechanism in RFEM-based limit analysis for slope stability in order to achieve realistic predictions.
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Acknowledgments
The work was supported by the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong (under grant no. 623609) and HKUST Postdoctoral Fellowship Matching Fund. The first author also appreciates that MOSEK ApS has kindly provided a free academic license of MOSEK for the study.
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© 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: May 27, 2012
Accepted: Dec 27, 2012
Published online: Dec 29, 2012
Published in print: Dec 1, 2013
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