A method for locating critical slip surfaces in slope stability analysis

This paper presents a new method for locating critical slip surfaces of general shapes in slope stability analysis. On the basis of the principle of optimality, along with the method of slices, a critical slip field (CSF) in a slope is postulated which consists of a family of slip surfaces having maximum values of unbalanced thrust forces at exit points on the slope face. A numerical procedure is developed for constructing the CSF. The critical slip surface having minimum factor of safety is included in the CSF. All the critical slip surfaces corresponding to all of the exit points are thus determined consecutively, resulting in a global critical slip field (GCSF) which exhibits both global and local slope stability. Comparisons with other methods are made which indicate the high efficiency and accuracy of the proposed approach. Applications of the proposed method to two case examples are given, the results of which demonstrate its applicability to practical engineering.Key words: slope, stability, analys...

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