Non-Linear Hoek-Brown Shear Strength Reduction Technique Considering the Effect of Dilation

Abstract

In order to implement the non-linear Hoek-Brown (HB) shear strength reduction (SSR) on commercially available softwares, this paper derives the relationship between the Drucker-prager (DP) criterion and HB criterion under the condition of plane strain. The equivalent DP parameters can be approximately estimated after serious transformations of parameters between the HB and Mohr-Coulomb (MC) yield functions. To assess the effect of dilation on the stability of slope, the non-associated flow rule, which cannot be contained in the existing limit equilibrium methods, is selected in our analysis, and the SSR-based results of a simple slope indicate that: If the angle of dilatancy ψ is taken to be zero, the factor of safety calculated by the SSR method is very close to that by the limit equilibrium method; if ψ is greater than zero, the factor of safety calculated by the SSR method is greater than that by the limit equilibrium method, and the effect of dilation on the stability of slope can be approximately described by a liner function.