STABILITY OF SLOPES

Faculty: S.P.Parmar
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Department of Civil Engineering
Faculty of Technology,
Dharmasinh Desai University,
Nadiad
Mail Add: samirddu@gmail.com
ANGLE OF REPOSE

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 THE AIMS OF SLOPE STABILITY ANALYSES ARE

 To understand the development and form of natural slopes and

the processes responsible for different natural features.
 To assess the stability of slopes under short-term (often during
construction) and long-term conditions.
 To assess the possibility of landslides involving natural or
existing engineered slopes.
 To analyze landslides and to understand failure mechanisms
and the influence of environmental factors.
 To enable the redesign of failed slopes and the planning and
design of preventive and remedial measures, where necessary.
 To study the effect of seismic loadings on slopes and
embankments. 4
SLOPES OF EARTH ARE OF TWO TYPES

 1. Natural slopes
- slopes exist in hilly areas

 2. Man made slopes

 - The sides of cuttings-
- The slopes of embankments constructed for
roads railway lines, canals etc.
- The slopes of earth dams constructed for
storing water.

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THE SLOPES WHETHER NATURAL OR ARTIFICIAL
MAY BE

 1. Infinite slopes
- The term infinite slope is used to designate a
constant slope of infinite extent.
- The long slope of the face of a mountain

 2. Finite slopes
- Finite slopes are limited in extent.
- The slopes of embankments and earth dams are
examples of finite slopes.
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SLOPE STABILITY:

 Design and construction of earth dams.

 Slope failure can often be catastrophic, involving
the loss of considerable property and many lives.

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CAUSES OF FAILURE OF SLOPES:

 Gravitational force
 Force due to seepage water

 Erosion of the surface of slopes due to flowing

water
 The sudden lowering of water adjacent to a slope

 Forces due to earthquakes

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CAUSES OF MASS MOVEMENTS

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What is the cause

of movement?
FORCES THAT ACT ON EARTH SLOPES

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FORCES THAT ACT ON EARTH SLOPES

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GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS AND
ASSUMPTIONS IN THE ANALYSIS
 1. Testing of samples to determine the cohesion and
angle of internal friction
 2. The study of items which are known to enter but
which cannot be accounted for in the computations.
 3. Computation

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 Slope Stability
W

In general you have:

• Driving Force – Weight of Slope
• Resisting Force – Strength of soil along slip surface
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Buttress at toe
 Slope Stability
• In slope stability analysis we determine the Factor of Safety as
a ratio of resisting forces to driving forces

Fs = Resisting / Driving

• Theoretically, any slope with a Factor of Safety less than one

will fail and any slope with a factor of safety greater than one
will not.
• Design focuses on the soil parameters and geometry that will
provide the maximum factor of safety.
• Sometimes, the analysis of an existing slope will be what is
called a parametric study – that is establishing a factor of
safety and performing an analysis that back calculates the
strength parameters.
• The engineer will then determine his/her confidence level as15to
whether or not the soil has that strength through experience,
lab, and/or field data.
THE SHEAR STRENGTH OF SOIL IS ASSUMED
TO FOLLOW COULOMB'S LAW

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FACTOR OF SAFETY

 1. Factor of safety with respect to shearing

strength.
 2. Factor of safety with respect to cohesion.

 This is termed the factor of safety with respect to

height.

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THE FACTOR OF SAFETY WITH RESPECT TO
SHEARING STRENGTH, FS, MAY BE WRITTEN AS

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 The shearing strength mobilized at each point on a
failure surface may be written as

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STABILITY ANALYSIS OF INFINITE SLOPE IN SAND

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 the slice is in equilibrium, the weight and reaction are
equal in magnitude and opposite in direction.
 They have a common line of action which passes

through the centre of the base AB.

The lateral forces must be equal and opposite and their

line of action must be parallel to the sloped surface.
 The normal and shear stresses on plane AB are

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 If full resistance is mobilized on plane AB, the shear
strength, s, of the soil per Coulomb's law is

 The factor of safety of infinite slopes in sand may be

written as

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STABILITY ANALYSIS OF INFINITE
SLOPES IN CLAY

The depth at which

the shearing stress
and shearing
strength are equal is
called the critical
depth.
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EXPRESSION FOR THE STABILITY OF AN
INFINITE SLOPE OF CLAY OF DEPTH H
 the developed shearing stress as
 Under conditions of no seepage and no pore
pressure, the stress components on a plane at
depth H and parallel to the surface of the slope are

 Substituting these stress expressions in the

equation above and simplifying, we have

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 where H is the allowable height and the term c’m/
H is a dimensionless expression called the
 stability number and is designated as Ns. This
dimensionless number is proportional to the
required cohesion and is inversely proportional to
the allowable height.
 If in Eq. (10.7) the factor of safety with respect to
friction is unity, the stability number with respect to
cohesion may be written as

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 The stability number may be written as

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ANALYSIS OF INFINITE SLOPE WITH SEEPAGE FLOW
THROUGH THE ENTIRE MASS

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 if the factor of safety with respect to friction is unity,
the stability number which represents the cohesion
may be written as

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 ANALYSIS OF INFINITE SLOPE WITH COMPLETELY
SUBMERGED SLOPE

If the slope is completely

submerged, and if there
is no seepage as in Fig.
then

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where b = submerged unit weight of the soil.
 METHODS OF STABILITY
ANALYSIS OF SLOPES OF
FINITE HEIGHT
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HISTORY

 Petterson (1955) first applied the circle method to the

analysis of a soil failure in connection with the failure of a
quarry wall in Goeteberg, Sweden.
 There are other methods of historic interest such as the
Culmann method (1875) and the logarithmic spiral
method (Rendulic (1935).

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PLANE SURFACE OF FAILURE

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Where, Hc is the critical height of the slope.

the allowable height of a slope is

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CIRCULAR SURFACES OF FAILURE

 Slope failure
 Toe failure

 Base failure

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ROTATIONAL SLIDE

SLOPE FAILURE

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TOE FAILURE

BASE FAILURE

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FAILURE UNDER UNDRAINED CONDITIONS (U= 0)

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FRICTION-CIRCLE METHOD

The friction
circle method of
slope
analysis is a
convenient
approach for
both graphical
and
mathematical
solutions.

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THE FORCES CONSIDERED IN THE ANALYSIS ARE

 1.The total weight W of the mass above the trial

circle acting through the centre of mass. The
centre of mass may be determined by any one of
the known methods.
 2. The resultant boundary neutral force U. The
vector U may be determined by a graphical
 method from flow net construction.

 3. The resultant intergranular force, P, acting on

the boundary.
 4. The resultant cohesive force C. 41
ACTUATING FORCES

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RESISTANT COHESIVE FORCES

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RESULTANT OF INTER-GRANULAR FORCES

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RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN K AND CENTRAL ANGLE ’

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 TAYLOR'S STABILITY NUMBER

 If the slope angle , height of embankment H, the

effective unit weight of material , angle of internal friction
', and unit cohesion c' are known, the factor of safety
may be determined.
 Taylor (1937) conceived the idea of analyzing the stability
of a large number of slopes through a wide range of slope
angles and angles of internal friction, and then
representing the results by an abstract number which he
called the "stability number". This number is designated
as Ns.

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TENSION CRACKS

 If a dam is built of cohesive soil, tension cracks are

usually present at the crest. The depth of such
cracks may be computed from the equation

 Where Zo = depth of crack, c' = unit cohesion,  =

unit weight of soil.

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TENSION CRACK IN DAMS BUILT OF COHESIVE
SOILS

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STABILITY ANALYSIS BY METHOD OF
SLICES FOR STEADY SEEPAG

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FELLENIUS METHOD
Fellenius found that
the angle intersected at 0 in below for this case is about 133.5°.

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BISHOP'S SIMPLIFIED METHOD OF SLICES

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VALUES OF M

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MORGENSTERN METHOD OF ANALYSIS FOR
RAPID DRAWDOWN CONDITION

 assumptions made in the analysis are

 1. Simple slope of homogeneous material

 2. The dam rests on an impermeable base

 3. The slope is completely submerged initially

 4. The pore pressure does not dissipate during

drawdown

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 Morgenstern used the pore pressure parameter B
as developed by Skempton (1954) which states

 The charts developed take into account the

drawdown ratio which is defined as

 where Rd = drawdown ratio

 H (bar) = height of drawdown
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 H = height of dam
DAM SECTION FOR DRAWDOWN CONDITIONS

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FACTOR OF SAFETY VS DRAWDOWN RATIO

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FACTOR OF SAFETY VS DRAWDOWN RATIO

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Stability conditions for
an embankment slope
over a clay foundation.
(From Bishop and
Bjerrum, 1960.)

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SLOPE FAILURE MECHANISM

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PROGRESSIVE FAILURE OF SLOPE

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SLOPE FAILURE IMAGES FROM:

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SLOPE FAILURE IMAGES FROM:

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SLOPE FAILURE IMAGES FROM:

SLOPE FAILURE IMAGES FROM:

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SLOPE FAILURE IMAGES FROM:

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SLOPE FAILURE IMAGES FROM:

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SLOPE FAILURE IMAGES FROM:

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SLOPE FAILURE IMAGES FROM:

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SLOPE FAILURE IMAGES FROM:

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SLOPE FAILURE IMAGES FROM:

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LANDSLIDE ON CUT SLOPE AFTER INTENSE
RAINFALL, HAWAII KAI VALLEY

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LANDSLIDE IN TAIWAN

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SLOPE FAILURE IMAGES FROM:

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A LANDSLIDE IN SAINT-JUDE, QUE. IS SHOWN
FROM THE AIR ON MAY 11, 2010.

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MONITORING TECHNIQUES

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Where is the location of slip surface?

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