Slope Stability Analysis Under External Static Surcharge

Abstract

In the assessment of slopes, factor of safety values still remain the primary indexes for determining how close or far slopes are from failure. Limit equilibrium and finite elements methods are among the most popular methods of slope analysis. Both methods were used to analyze homogeneous and inhomogeneous slopes. However, Limit equilibrium methods are relatively simple and suffer from many assumptions compared with finite element analysis. Recently, as computational techniques advance, more and more attention has been paid to the slope stability evaluations using finite element methods (FEM). This article demonstrates a finite element approach to analyze the response of homogeneous and layered slopes. A detailed parametric analysis is presented to study the effect of surcharge (it can be an imposition of building load….etc.) on the stability of the slope. In regard with these results it is seen that the factor of safety increases with increase in soil properties, groundwater depth, slope length, distance from the crest of slope. However, it decreases with increase in surcharge intensity, increase of weak soil layer thickness and increase of slope angle and slope height.