Mathematical cover refinement of the numerical manifold method for the stability analysis of a soil-rock-mixture slope

Abstract

An improved NMM (Numerical Manifold Method) with mathematical cover refinement (RNMM) is adopted to investigate the stability of a SRM (soil-rock-mixture) slope. In the RNMM, refined mathematical meshes are deployed at specified domains where stress concentration may occur. Compared to the TNMM (Traditional NMM), the computational efficiency of the RNMM is better for slope stability problems. Besides, the recently proposed scheme called MLC (mathematical cover systems with multiple layers) is adopted to further improve the computational efficiency of the RNMM. Based on the proposed RNMM+MLC (RNMM with MLC), stability analyses about two typical examples including a soil slope and a SRM slope are investigated. The numerical results demonstrated that: 1) The FOS (factor of safety) based on the proposed RNMM is better than that based on the TNMM; 2) The FOS based on the RNMM + MLC is almost the same to that based on the RNMM, but the computational efficiency of the RNMM + MLC is better than that of the RNMM; 3) The distribution mode of plastic zones in a SRM slope differs a lot from a soil slope.