Determination of the critical slip surface in slope stability computations

Abstract

AbstractThe analysis of the stability of slopes using limiting equilibrium considerations necessitates the determination of the critical slip surface which yields the minimal factor of safety. The numerous methods currently available for slope stability analysis provide a procedure for assigning a factor of safety to a given slip surface, but do not consider the problem of identifying the critical conditions.This paper presents an effective minimization procedure based on dynamic programming by which the minimal factor of safety, and the corresponding surface, are determined simultaneously. This procedure SSDP (Slope Stability by Dynamic Programming), couples the minimization scheme with Spencer's method of slope stability analysis. It may be applied to slopes of any geometry, layering, pore pressure and external load distributions. No arbitrary restrictions are placed on the shape of the slip surfaces, and the analysis satisfies all equilibrium equations.Application of the procedure to slope stability problems reported in the literature shows that for a given slip surface the procedure yields factors of safety which are almost identical to those reported, but in every case a more critical slip surface, with a lower factor of safety, may be found.