Slope Reliability Analysis Considering Variability of Shear Strength Parameters

Abstract

The traditional safety factor method cannot consider the uncertainty in the slope system, and the reliability theory based on probability and statistics can more objectively evaluate the degree of influence on the slope, which has become a trend of slope stability evaluation. In this paper, the spatial variability of soil strength parameters cohesion c, internal friction angle φ is considered to build a stochastic variable model, the Monte Carlo method is adopted to study the effect of reliability index β for two parameters. The results shows that, the soil parameters c, have a significant impact on the reliability index β, however, φ is more sensitive in the calculation process which have a greater impact on the calculation of the safety factor and reliability index. The steeper slope has less reliability index. For high variability of the steep slope, a reliable indicator of φ variability is no longer sensitive. In actual engineering, the correlation of soil parameters c and is often not considered, so the reliable index calculated in this case is smaller than the actual one.