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Slope Stability Analysis

The document discusses factors that affect slope stability, including: - Slope failure occurs when disturbing forces like water saturation, surcharge loads, and steepening exceed resisting forces of soil shear strength. - Key factors that can increase disturbing forces or decrease resisting forces include water content, pore pressure, shocks, and weathering. - Proper slope design considers parameters like soil strength, water levels, slope geometry, and includes analyzing slope stability using methods like Bishop's Method to calculate a safety factor. - Effective and total stress analysis using soil strength parameters like cohesion and friction angle are part of the stability analysis approach.

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Bindu Srirangam
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297 views7 pages

Slope Stability Analysis

The document discusses factors that affect slope stability, including: - Slope failure occurs when disturbing forces like water saturation, surcharge loads, and steepening exceed resisting forces of soil shear strength. - Key factors that can increase disturbing forces or decrease resisting forces include water content, pore pressure, shocks, and weathering. - Proper slope design considers parameters like soil strength, water levels, slope geometry, and includes analyzing slope stability using methods like Bishop's Method to calculate a safety factor. - Effective and total stress analysis using soil strength parameters like cohesion and friction angle are part of the stability analysis approach.

Uploaded by

Bindu Srirangam
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Slide 1

Stability of Slopes
What are we going to discuss?
What is a Slope. Explain the factors causing failure.
Slope is an unsupported soil mass with an inclined surface.
– Infinite slopes: are natural slopes which are formed by natural causes, exist in hilly areas.
– Finite slopes: are Man-made slopes (or limited slopes). Slopes of Embankments, earthen
dams, canals etc.
Stability: is basically the resistance of inclined surface to failure by sliding or collapsing.
This is an extremely important consideration in the design and construction finite slopes.
On the other hand, the stability of a natural slope is also important. The results of a slope failure can
often be catastrophic, involving the loss of considerable property and many lives.

Slope Failure: Occurs when the soil slides w.r.t. to the remaining mass resulting in a downward and
outward movement

Technically, slope failure occurs when disturbing forces > resisting forces.
Disturbing forces are governed by shear stress while resisting forces are governed by shear strength
of the soil.
Factors causing failure are increase in Shear stress or decrease in shear strength of the soil:
Increase in Disturbing forces Decrease in Resisting forces
Increase in shear stress Decrease in Shear Strength
- Due to weight of water causing saturation of - Increase in water content, pore pressure
soils
- Surcharge loads - Shock or cyclic loads (earthquake), weathering
- Seepage pressure
- Steepening of slopes by excavation/ natural
erosion

Due to weight of water causing saturation of soils


Surcharge loads
Seepage pressure
Steepening of slopes by excavation/ natural erosion

– Design considerations
– Stability analysis
– Strength parameters
– Factor of Safety
– Software approach
– Example
– What do you observe?
– Conclusions

Here we go..!!

Slide 2
What is a Slope?
Unsupported soil mass with inclined surface
usually formed for

Highway Embankment

Railway Embankment

Earth Dam Levee

Stability of these slopes shall be


thoroughly analysed as they may
cause loss of human life.
Slide 3
When does a slope fail?
-When a large mass of soil slides wrt. remaining mass
-downward and outward movement of the soil mass
-occurs when distrubing forces (forces causing failure) > resisting forces (shearing resistance)
developed along a critical (failure) surface.

Slide 4
What are the factors causing failure?
• Increase in shear stress
◦ due to weight of water causing saturation of soils
◦ surcharge loads
◦ seepage pressure
◦ steepenig of slopes by excavation/ natural erosion
• Decrease in Shear strength of soil
◦ Increase in water content, pore pressure
◦ shock or cyclic loads (earth quake), weathering
Both cases are critical in rainy season as water content plays a major role in increase in shear stress
and decrease in shear strength of soil.

Types of failure:
-Sliding of cohesionless material: when embankment (only in sand/ gravel) slope is > phi
-Rotational failure: Uniform composition embankments,
-Planar & Composite failure
-Sinking failure
-Plastic sqeezing of foundation soil
-Liquefaction of embankment and/ foundation
Slide 5
Design Considerations!
As per specifications of Earthworks, to design stable slopes for the embankment,
embankment slope shall be 2H:1V
embankment height shall be 5.0m {would be safe for most of the soils}
However, this analysis has to be carried out in detail for any height ofembankment in following
situations:
When subsoil is soft, compressible & marshy type for any depth.
When subgrade soil (fill material) has very low value of cohesion C'such that C'/γH in the range of
0.01 (where H is height of embankment and γ is bulk density of soil)
When highest water table is within 1.5xH (H is the height of embankment), below groundlevel, then
submerged unit weight of soil below water level should be taken.

Slide 6
Soil parameters generally required for the embankment design include:
• Total stress and effective stress strength parameters
• Unit weight
• Compression indexes (primary, secondary and recompression) and
• Coefficient of consolidation

Slide 7
Stability Analysis:
-To determine whether the proposed slope meets the required safety and performance criteria during
design

Classifica on of Slope Stability Analysis

Dependent on Upper bound and lower


Limiting Analysis Simple Geometry bound solution techniques
Approach (Limited Application) Applied to ideal material with Simple
Geometry
Most frequently used method is Bishop
Method
Limiting Equilibrium
Slope Stability Approach Method of Slices Capable of giving reasonable answers for
Analysis most cases
Bishop Method is applicable only for
Circular Shapes
Finite Elements, Boundary Elements and
Finite Element Discrete Elements Methods
Displacement Approach
Methods
Applicable to Rock Slope Stability Analysis
Slide 8
Limiting Equilibrium Approach

-A soil slope is commonlyanalysedbased on Limit (or force or moment) Equilibrium methods that
measure its stability by a factor of safety (FS).
-The shear strength (limit) required along a failure surface is calculated to just maintain stability and
is then compared with the available shear strength to provide the overall FS for the slope.

Method of Slices:
Bishop’s Method

Bishop’smethod was developed solely


for circular failures. The analysis is
performed on a cross-section with a
failure surfaceby :
Dividingthe cross-section into slices.
Resolvingforces on each slice to
calculate the factor ofsafety.
Summingall slice results over the
entire slope to obtain an overall factor
ofsafety.
Assumption :
This method assumes slide forces lie
only in the horizontal direction .i.e.∑Fv= 0( to reduce the number of unknowns for the analysis).
Slide 9
Strength parameters
If the critical stability is under drained conditions, such as in sand or gravel, then effective stress
analysis using a peak friction angle is appropriate and should be used for stability assessment.
If the critical stabilityis under undrained conditions, such as in most clays and silts, a total stress
analysis using the undrained cohesion value with no friction is appropriate and should be used for
stability assessment.

Effective Stress Analysis


In the effective stress analysis, the failure criterion is represented in terms of effective stresses by
the expression:

τf=ｃ'+σ‘ tan φ' =ｃ'+(σ－ｕ) tan φ'


in which parameters ｃ' and φ' are referred to,
respectively, as the cohesion intercept and the
angle of shearing resistance in terms of effective
stresses, and they are determined from CU tests
or drained tests (D tests) for saturated samples.

Total Stress Analysis


Partially Saturated Soils :

Gradient of strength envelop decreases as


confining pressure increases because of the
increase in the degree of saturation of soilsample.
Because strength envelop has a curvature, c and
φ are determined for an appropriate confining
pressure σ０in the desired stressrange.

Partially Saturated Soils

Saturated Soils :
Undrainedshear strength becomes constant for
saturatedsoils.

Total stress analysis is then called asφu=0analysis.


The value of cu varies depending on the
consolidation pressure papplied onthespecimen.

Saturated Soils
Factor of Safety
As per IRC: 75, a factor of safety of 1.4 is normally adopted for slope failure
Also, as per IRC: 113-2013, the following table is applicable:

Software approach:

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