CE 3509 -SOIL MECHANICS II- SLOPE STABILITY

I. Modes of Failure

a)rotational slip b)translational slip

II. Factors That Influence Slope Stability

 Soil and rock strength (soil type and stratification)
 Discontinuities and planes of weakness
 Groundwater and seepage
 External loading
 Slope geometry
III. Failure Triggering Factors
 Erosion
 Rainfall
 Earthquakes
 Geological factors
 External loading
 Construction activities
 Rapid drawdown
 Increment of pore water pressure
IV. Slope Stability Protection and Improvement
 Slopes flattened or benched
 Lowering of groundwater table to reduce pore pressure in the slope
 Using piles
 Using retaining wall or sheet pile to increase the resistance against sliding
 Soil improvement (jet grouting, compaction)
V. Stability Criteria

center of rotation
Stability criteria of slopes;
O
Driving forces < Resisting forces
resisting force
FS= >1
driving force
sliding
mass slip (failure) surface

toe of slope

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Granular Soils:
 The C'=0 Method

Cohesive Soils:
Circular Failure Surface:

 The Basic Idea

 Method of Slices
 Fellenius' Method
 Bishop's Method

Non-Circular Failure Surface:

 Janbu's Method
 Infinite Slope Method
 Stability Charts
Limit equilibrium methods:

 Most common approach

 Requires only simple Mohr-Coulomb soil model
 Cannot model progressive failure
 Cannot compute displacements
 Must search for critical surface
Finite element methods:
 – Do not need to search for critical surface, analysis automatically finds it
 – Must have a complete stress-strain model for soil
 – Can compute displacements
 – Can model progressive failure

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 VI. Infinite Slopes

L 𝛼

Vi+1
J Ei+1 z
W
Ei
Vi

𝛼 T
assumed slip plane
N
a. Infinite Slopes in Cohesionless Soils

W=weight of slice
The force that resists against the sliding of the slope = 𝜎tan∅=N tan∅=Wcos𝛼 tan∅
The force that causes slope to slide =T= Wsin𝛼
The factor of safety against sliding failure ;

resisting force Wcos𝛼 tan∅ tan∅

FS= = =
driving force Wsin𝛼 tan𝛼
At the limiting equilibrium FS =1
tan𝛼 tan∅
𝛼 ∅

The maximum inclination of an infinite slope in a cohesionless soil for
stability is equal to the angle of internal friction of the soil

b. Infinite Slopes in Cohesionless Soils Under Steady Seepage

Seepage force=J = i 𝛾bz
i= sin𝛼 (Since seepage is parallel to the slope)
N′ =W’cos𝛼= 𝛾′bz cos𝛼
T= W’sin𝛼+J= 𝛾′bz sin𝛼+ 𝛾w bz sin𝛼 = ( 𝛾′ + 𝛾w )bz sin𝛼 = 𝛾sat bz sin𝛼
resisting force N′tan∅′ 𝛾′𝑏𝑧 cosα tan∅′ γ'tan∅′
FS= = = =
driving force T 𝛾𝑠𝑎𝑡 𝑏𝑧 sin𝛼 𝛾𝑠𝑎𝑡 tan𝛼

At the limiting equilibrium FS =1

γ'tan∅′
tan𝛼 =
𝛾𝑠𝑎𝑡
γ' 1
=
𝛾𝑠𝑎𝑡 2
1
tan𝛼 = tan∅′
2

The seepage parallel to the slope reduces the limiting slope angle in coarse
grained soil by one-half of the friction angle

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VII. Finite Slopes

a) Ordinary Method of Slice

b) Bishop’s Method of Slice

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 c) Janbu’s Method of Slice

Janbu presented a correction factor, f0, instead of the interslice shear forces,Ei and Ei+1 .