Limit equilibrium method (LEM) of slope stability and calculation of comprehensive factor of safety with double strength-reduction technique

Abstract

When the slope is in critical limit equilibrium (LE) state, the strength parameters have different contribution to each other on maintaining slope stability. That is to say that the strength parameters are not simultaneously reduced. Hence, the LE stress method is established to analyze the slope stability by employing the double strengthreduction (DSR) technique in this work. For calculation model of slope stability under the DSR technique, the general nonlinear Mohr–Coulomb (M–C) criterion is used to describe the shear failure of slope. Meanwhile, the average and polar diameter methods via the DSR technique are both adopted to calculate the comprehensive factor of safety (FOS) of slope. To extend the application of the polar diameter method, the original method is improved in the proposed method. After comparison and analysis on some slope examples, the proposed method’s feasibility is verified. Thereafter, the stability charts of slope suitable for engineering application are drawn. Moreover, the studies show that: (1) the average method yields similar results as that of the polardiameter method; (2) compared with the traditional uniform strength-reduction (USR) technique, the slope stability obtained using the DSR technique tends to be more unsafe; and (3) for a slope in the critical LE state, the strength parameter φ, i.e., internal friction angle, has greater contribution on the slope stability than the strength parameters c, i.e., cohesion.