Tabu search for critical non-circular slip surface in slope stability analysis

Abstract

Stability analysis of slopes is of utmost importance because its failure may lead to loss of lives and great economic losses. Locating the critical circular slip surface is the key step of slope stability analysis. Location of the critical slip surface of a general soil slope is difficult because the objective function of the factor of safety is non-convex and multiple minima exist in general. In this paper, a new approach which combines tabu search and limited equilibrium method (Spencer method) was proposed and applied to some classic examples. The results show the proposed search approach is stable and highly correlated with the results of independent analyses. Furthermore, this paper demonstrates the successful application of tabu search to non-circular critical slip surface search problems.