Abstract
It is difficult to consider the heterogeneity and discontinuity of rock and soil in conventional slope stability analysis. This paper proposes an efficient slope stability analysis method based on discrete element method (DEM) and Monte Carlo simulations(MCS). The analysis employed the stacking models with multiple slopes and the element displacement to achieve rapid analysis of slope stability. Using on the high-performance discrete element software MatDEM, a stacking model containing 100 2D slopes and a total of more than 800,000 elements was generated. The element tensile strength F and friction coefficient μ p were set as random variables to consider the material heterogeneity and uncertainty. We performed the stability analyses of 40,000 slopes for 28 hours. The numerical results show that the slopes were instable when a sudden displacement and penetrating sliding surface occurred. The coefficient of variation COVPf of slope failure probability is greatly meets the target accuracy requirements of MCS, which shows the method can be applied to the refined analysis of slopes with high-precision requirements and multiple random variables.
Highlights
Slope stability analysis is an important issue of engineering geology
Combined with the microscopic characteristics of the elements, and in order to prevent the escape of the elements from the slope surface from affecting the calculation results, it is assumed that when the displacement of more than 1% of the elements in the slope is greater than the element diameter, the slope model is considered to produce a penetrating sliding surface, and slope failure is determined
This paper explores a slope stability analysis method based on discrete element method (DEM) and MCS with the software MatDEM
Summary
Slope stability analysis is an important issue of engineering geology. Since Crawford and Eden (1967) first introduced the reliability theory to slope stability analysis, it has been applied in slope protection designs and stability evaluations[[1]][[2]]. Conventional slope MCS is often combined with limit equilibrium methods (LEM) and finite element methods (FEM)[4]. Based on the four limit equilibrium theories of Fellenius method, Bishop method, Janbu method and Morgenstern-Price method, Wang et al.[5] conducted MCS of slope stability analysis and contrastively analyzed the failure probability of the slope. The discontinuous nature of rock and soil can hardly be captured by conventional slope MCS, while the discrete element method (DEM) provides an alternative approach forward[9]. Due to high computational cost, the application of DEM in slope stability analysis is mostly limited to the analysis of the initiation and propagation mechanisms of slope failure. This research uses high-performance discrete element software MatDEM to perform slope stability analysis method based on DEM and MCS[11]. By testing the stability of 40000 slope samples, we verified the effectiveness of the proposed method as a new way for slope stability analysis
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