ISSN 2319-5347, ISI Impact Factor: 0.763

VOLUME 04 NO. 04 OCTOBER 2015:

Title:          Stability analysis of slopes with surcharge by LEM and FEM
Authors:     Md. Moniruzzaman Moni, Md. Mahmud Sazzad
Abstract:   This article demonstrates a finite element approach to analyze the response of slopes of homogeneous and layered soil with shear strength reduction (SSR) technique. Slope failure may occur owing to a reduction of shear strength with increasing plastic strains induced by loading. The present approach allows this failure process and analysis is carried out using Mohr-Coulomb and Drucker-Prager yield criteria in which the shear strength parameters are reduced. The effect of mesh on the factor of safety of slope is investigated. To assess the reliability of the numerical result for slope stability analysis by the finite element SSR technique, its comparison with the well known conventional methods namely Bishop Method (1955), Fellenius Method (1936) and Spencer Method (1967) is shown for homogeneous and layered soil. Good agreement is found between the conventional limit equilibrium methods (LEM) and finite element method (FEM). It is noted that FEM gives a bit higher factor of safety than LEM. Besides, Drucker-Prager model gives higher factor of safety than that of Mohr-Coulomb model regardless of the position of surcharge and slope angles for both the slopes of homogeneous and layered soil. The factor of safety increases when the distance of surcharge increases from the crest of the slope up to a certain level and beyond that, the effect of surcharge remains constant for slopes of homogeneous and layered soil. The failure surfaces for both LEM and FEM have also been assessed.  

Keywords: Slope stability, Surcharge, Finite element method, Shear strength reduction technique, Conventional method, Factor of safety
Pages:        216-225

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