A quantitative display index that considers tensile failure to predict the full sliding surface of a landslide

Abstract

In slope stability evaluation, it is common that a potential tensile sliding surface is not accurately positioned. In this paper, the strength reduction method considering shear and tensile failure with a strain-softening model is adopted to simulate the deterioration of the strength parameters of geomaterials during failure. Based on the initial stress method, a new quantitative display index of the full sliding surface is proposed. This method was applied to the stability analysis of a heterogeneous slope and a homogeneous slope. The results show that the plastic zone determined with the strain-softening model is much smaller than that determined with the Mohr-Coulomb model, and the difference is 34–40%. The safety factor obtained without considering tensile failure is 3.1% larger than that obtained considering tensile failure. The index can be used to quantitatively display the shear failure zone and tensile failure zone of a sliding surface.