Physical and Numerical Simulation of Geotechnical Engineering

15th Issue, June. 2014

Reliability Analysis of Bench Slope Based on Rosenblueth

Method
LIU Xiaofan, JIANG Zhaohua, DUAN Wenfu
Department of Civil Engineering, Wuhan Polytechnic University, Wuhan 430023, P.R.China
hnsfine@163.com

ABSTRACT: A bench slope of moraine is selected as the study object. A new method of reliability
analysis, that is simplified rosenblueth method, is presented and adopted to analyze the reliability of
the bench slope of original design scheme and recommended scheme. The results indicate that the
inherent variability of strength, anti-weathering ability and hydro-physical properties of moraine soil
primarily affect the high failure probability of benches. Geometrical factors of slope bring little effects
on it. The bench slope with ternary platform widths of 3m, 3m and 15m are recommended and some
effective measures such as drainage and revetment are suggested to enhance the stability of the slope.
KEYWORDS: Bench slope, Simplified rosenblueth method, Reliability, Failure probability

1 INTRODUCTION Used of the simplified rosenblueth method, the minimal

reliability index is defined as following steps: a series of
trial calculation surfaces are selected as the certain failure
Slope engineering is a typical complex nonlinear
surfaces. Probability analysis of slope stability is carried.
problem with three characters. First, influencing factors of
The minimal index of the entire calculated indexes is the
project property and state, such as the lithology and
minimal reliability index.
conformation of slope geological body, strength of
continuous surface and flaccidity soil, ground water, are 2.2 Expression of reliability index
various. Second, all influencing factors are highly
incertitude, namely random city and illegibility. Third, The limit state equation of state function FS-1 is FS-1=0 [2].
affect factors of slope stability are relate with each other. A Following with the first-order second-moment method [3],
change of one of the factors will lead to the change of the supposing the FS obeys normal distribution, the reliability
whole slope, and thus, the evaluation index of stability is expression of FS is:
changed. E[Fs ] Fs ( xi ) 1
1
= =
It is impossible and unreasonable to present the [Fs ] Fs 2 F F
[ ]
n n

stabilization with a single stable index. Therefore, [X i ] + 2 s s [X i ] X j

i =1 X
i , j =1 X i X j
i
integrated of various nonlinear methods and based on the
(1)
mechanical response of slope soil will result in a more
effective result. Simplified rosenblueth method with Where n is the number of the soil parameters, E [Fs] and
various stable indexes is selected to analysis the rationality [Fs] are the expectation and standard deviation of FS. xi
and stability of a bench slope. and [Xi] are the mean and standard deviation of
parameter Xi. is the correlation coefficient of Xi and Xj.

2 CALCULATION PRINCIPLE OF SIMPLIFIED Fs Fs+ Fs

ROSENBLUETH METHOD = (2)
X i 2 [ X i ]
2.1 Definition of minimal reliability index In order to quantificational calculate the partial
Ordinarily, the calculation of the minimal reliability derivation of the safety factor to each soil parameter, the
index is as follows [1]: following steps are suggested: soil parameters that greater
Firstly, a series of trial calculation surfaces are put and less than one standard deviation [Xi] are selected to
forward. A set of deterministic design values of soil calculate the safety factors Fs+ and Fs- directly.
parameters are selected to analysis each trial calculation Substituting the formula (2) into formula (1), the
surface. The trial calculation surface with the minimal expression of reliability index with simplified rosenblueth
safety factor is defined as the most danger failure surface. method is described as following:
Secondly, based on the most danger failure surface, Fs ( xi ) 1
=
random state variables, such as the mean and standard n
F F +
n
F + Fsi Fsj+ Fsj
deviation of soil strength, are used to analysis the slope
i =1 2
si si
+ 2 si
2

2


reliability. The reliability index is thus given. i , j =1
Judged from above calculation steps, the reliability index (3)
is the local minimal reliability index of a certain failure Supposing the FS obeys normal distribution, the formula
surface, instead of the whole body.

ST. PLUM-BLOSSOM PRESS PTY LTD

Reliability Analysis of Bench Slope Based on Rosenblueth Method
DOI:10.5503/J.PNSGE.2014.15.002

of reliability index is: Xi corresponding to min is the most sensitive parameter,

namely the controlling parameter. Therefore, the failure
E [ln Fs ] surface of min could be easily located by the use of
= (4)
sensitive parameter [9].
ln Fs

Where:
3 RELIABILITY ANALYSIS OF BENCH SLOPE
2

E ( ln FS ) = ln ( E [ FS ])
ln FS
, 3.1 Characteristics of slope soil
2
FS 2
= ln 1 +
E ( FS )
ln FS .
2.3 Determination of failure surface with the minimal
reliability index (min)
The calculation of (min) is under the condition that the
denominator of formula (3) reaches its maximum value, that is,
the potential failure surface with the most sensitive safety
factor must be given. A slope with two layer medias and two
parameters (cohesion c and internal frictional angle ) is
selected as an example to describe the calculating method of
the failure surface with the minimal reliability index [4-5].
(1) Strength parameters are designated as a specific
combination. Each parameter will be decreased to a lesser
value, that is, E [Xi]-m [Xi], where m is the time of decrease,
and then, the following combinations are given:
(
FS1 = f c , E [1 ] , E [ c2 ] , E [2 ]
1 ),
(
FS2 = f E [ c1 ] , 1 , E [ c2 ] , E [2 ] ),
(
FS3 = f E [ c1 ] , E [1 ] , c2 , E [2 ] ),
A slope in Sichuan province that composed of moraine
has following characteristics:
(1) Solid-phase of moraine could be simplified as soft
clayey soil and hard gravel. Soft clayey soil acts as
substrate and hard gravel, which has a wide grading with
the grain size from 2.1mm to 1.6m, act as filler.
(2) Gravel with different grain size is random distributed
at the soft clayey soil unevenly. The content of gravel or
soft clayey soil may be concentrated in a local part, and
result in changeable characteristics.
(3) Water content is determined by the cementation
degree of the gravel and the soft clayey soil. Moraine
exposed under the sunshine and eroded by rainfall lost
much caking capability. Many parts of the slope with
moraine collapsed or eroded.
3.2 Calculation scheme
Collapse and erosion can be seen in this selected slope.
Because the bench slope with single and double steps are
the main forms in engineering, and bench slope with three
steps destroyed occasionally, these three kinds of slope are
designed as calculation model.
Meanwhile, an optimization scheme with the same slope
angle and different step width of the original scheme is
presented for contrastive analysis. Tables 1 to 2 show the

(
FS4 = f E [ c1 ] , E [1 ] , E [ c2 ] , 2 ) geometric parameters of the bench slopes.
Physical and mechanical properties of moraine are
shown as Table 3. Shear strength parameters (c and ) are
Each combinations most danger failure surface (Si) will
discounted according to correlation study [5].
be searched and the minimal safety factor FSi could be
given [6].
(2) Using formula (3), each failure surface of step (1) is Table 1 Geometric parameters of original scheme
calculated and reliability index i then be given. Calculation Step Height Slope Step

(
1 )
FS1 = f c , E [1 ] , E [ c2 ] , E [2 ] S1 , 1 , scheme number /m angle/() width/m
1 12 42 6
( )
FS2 = f E [ c1 ] , 1 , E [ c2 ] , E [2 ] S 2 , 2
2 24 42 6, 6

( )
FS3 = f E [ c1 ] , E [1 ] , c2 , E [2 ] S3 , 3 , 3 36 42 6, 6, 10

( )
FS4 = f E [ c1 ] , E [1 ] , E [ c2 ] , 2 S 4 , 4 Table 2 Geometric parameters of optimization scheme

(3) Among these failure surfaces of step (1), the failure Calculation Step Height Slope Step
surface which has the minimal safety factor is the failure scheme number /m angle/() width/m
surface with the minimal reliability index [7-8].
1 12 42 6
FS min = Min( FS i ) 2 24 42 3, 10
F / X 3 36 42 3, 3, 15
Judging from formula (3), s i corresponding to
-
min is the maximum and FS is the minimum. Accordingly,

8
 Physical and Numerical Simulation of Geotechnical Engineering
15th Issue, June. 2014

Table 3 Physical and mechanical properties of moraine Table 4 Calculation result of slope reliability for original
scheme
Parameter Mean Standard deviation
Calculation
scheme
Pf /% Fs
c/ kPa 100.0 87.8
0.75 22.66 3.53
/() 21.0 2.6
0.82 20.61 2.59
/ (kNm-3) 18.2 0.58 28.09 2.18

3.3 Calculation results Where Pf is the failure probability, Fs is the safety

BISHOP method is used to calculate the safety factor. factor based on the mean of state parameters.
Simplified rosenblueth method is used to analysis the
reliability of the bench slope. Figure 1 shows the locating Table 5 Calculation result of slope reliability for
process of the failure surface with the minimal reliability optimization scheme
index.
Calculation
scheme
Pf /% Fs
15

0.99 16.12 4.37

Relative height/m

Failure surface with the

0.73 23.27 2.52
minimal relibiality index
0.85 19.77 2.48

0
3.4 Discussion of calculation results
0 15 30
Horizontal distance/m
(1) Safety factor of bench slope that calculated by the
mean of state parameters is greater both in original and
(a) 1st step
optimization scheme. The value of the safety factor is
30 within 2.18 and 4.37, which proves steady. The failure
probability of the original and optimization scheme are
Realitive height/m

22.66% to 28.09% and 16.12% to 23.27% respectively,

Failure surface with the
15
minimal reliability index
which correspond with the failure probability of the slope
in site (51.2%).
(2) The failure probability of the bench slope with three
0
steps is higher, which is not accord with the observation in
0 15 30 45 60 site. The reason is that there is no obvious wide platform in
Horizontal distance/m
(b) 2nd step the bench slope and the effect of the wide platform with
three steps can not be achieved.
45 (3) While under the same angle of slope, with the
platform width changes from 6m, 6m and 10m to 3m, 3m
and 15m, the failure probability of the bench slope with one
Realitive height /m

30
Failure surface with the and two steps decrease from 22.64% to 20.61% and
minimal reliability index 16.12% to 23.27%, which indicate that the influencing
15 factors of the reliability is not the geometric parameters, but
the strength parameters. The reliability of bench slope of
three steps is from 28.09% to 19.77%. Bench slope of three
0
0 15 30 45 60 75 steps with the width of 15m could decrease the failure
Horizontal distance/m probability efficiently and hold up the landslide upside.
(c) 3rd step

Figure 1 Locating process of the failure surface with the 4 CONCLUSIONS

minimal reliability index
(1) Simplified Rosenblueth method uses the existing
The reliability index, failure probability and safety factor slope stability analysis program and requires no special
of the original and optimization scheme are shown as Table searching program, which provides an easy and efficient
4 to 5. method for searching the failure surface with the minimal
reliability index.
(2) Simplified Rosenblueth method actually focuses on

9
Reliability Analysis of Bench Slope Based on Rosenblueth Method
DOI:10.5503/J.PNSGE.2014.15.002
reliability index to calculate the minimal reliability index.
As far as accuracy is concerned, it is much more accurate
than the method that is based on the failure surface with the
minimal safety index.
(3) Affected by inherent properties of moraine soil and
the working environment of slope, bench slope has a high
probability of failure. It indicates that there will be some
unavoidable damage happening to bench slope. In order to
improve the stability of the bench slope and keep it
beautiful, bench slope of three steps with the width of 3m,
3m and 15m are recommended. Meanwhile, some effective
measures such as drainage and revetment are put forward to
prevent moraine soil from weathering and the strength from
discounting.
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Chinese)
10
[3]. SHENG Ju, XIE Shiqian, PAN Chengyi. Probability and
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Polytechnic University. 2007 (in Chinese)
[6]. Griffiths D V and Lane P A. Slope Stability Analysis by
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[7]. QIAN Jiahua, YIN Zongze. Principle and Calculation of the
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[8]. LUO Wenqiang, GONG Yu. Application of Rosenblueth
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