Limit Plasticity Approach to Slope Stability Problems

Abstract

In slope stability analysis, various limit equilibrium are applied, e.g., Fellenius' method, Bishop's method, Janbu's method, Kenney's method, the Morgenstern-Price method, Madej's method, and others. All these are generally called methods of The safety factor is obtained from the conditions of a global equilibrium of forces acting on the vertical rigid slices. Thus, the are similar to the limit analysis method, which is based on the static equilibrium of the field of forces being associated with the failure mechanism. However, application of the slices requires various additional assumptions concerning the force distribution on interfaces of slices, since the stability problems are statically indeterminate. The application of the upper bound theorem to the determination of the safety factor is examined in this paper. The upper bound of the safety factor is compared with those obtained by conventional limit equilibrium methods. The accuracy of limit equilibrium is also estimated. (Author)