Advanced Materials Research Vols.

243-249 (2011) pp 3315-3318

Online available since 2011/May/17 at www.scientific.net
© (2011) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland
doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.243-249.3315

Potential Slip Surfaces of slope with Strength Parameters

Hang Lin a and Ping Caob

School of Resources & Safety Engineering, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, 410083,
China
a b
linhangabc@126.com , pcao_csu@tom.com

Key words: Geotechnical engineering; slope stability; potential slip surface; factor of safety.
Abstract. The cohesion c and friction angle φ are the main strength parameters influencing the
stability of slope. Any of them changes, the factor of safety of slope will change, but it has seldom
been considered in the literature how the potential slip surface will change at the same time. In the
present paper, the analytical deduction and numerical analysis are done to find out the effect of shear
strength parameters c and φ to the distribution of potential slip surface. The study shows that, the
potential slip surface is affected by the combination of c and φ, whose function is λ=c/(γhtanφ).

Introduction
In the past, the slope stability is mainly evaluated by limit equilibrium method (LEM), but LEM
imports some hypothesis which damages the strictness of the calculation results. In recent years,
however, with rapid development of computational techniques, the strength reduction method (SRM)
gradually becomes an important method in slope stability analysis. SRM is not restrained by the
irregular geometry of slope and asymmetric characteristic of material, which shows great advantages
over LEM. Many work have been done on SRM [1-4], like concentrating on how to calculate the
factor of safety of slope, such as the definition of slope failure state, the application of SRM in
different failure criterions, the effect of strength parameters to the factor of safety of slope, et al. As it
is well known, the cohesion c and friction angle φ are the main strength parameters which will
influence the stability of slope directly. Any of them changes, the factor of safety will change, but it
has seldom been considered in the literature how the potential slip surface will change at the same
time. So in the present paper, the analytical deduction and numerical analysis are done to find out the
effect of shear strength parameters c and φ to the potential slip surface, which will give further
guidance to understanding the SRM.

Analytical analysis for relationship of potential slip surface and strength parameters
The SRM has been widely applied in the slope stability analysis for two-dimensional situations
[2,3], and three dimensional situations[5]. In the SRM, the initial slope strength parameters c0 and
tanφ0 are reduced to lead the slope to the verge state of failure, which state is called the critical state of
slope in the present paper, then the reduction coefficient ξ is defined as the factor of safety Fs.
Suppose ccr and φcr are the cohesion and friction angle for the critical state of slope, at which state the
factor of safety is 1, then the factor of safety for the initial state of slope is,

Fs = c0/ ccr = tanφ0/ tanφcr (1)

It has been shown that for a given homogeneous slope with certain geometry, unit weight and pore
water pressure distribution, the location of a critical slip surface is only related to the cohesion ccr and
friction angel φcr of critical failure state [6]. So it can be found out the relationship of different
potential slip surfaces with arbitrary ci and φi of slope by comparing the ccr and φcr of different slopes.
Suppose that ccr and φcr are constant, we can find the divisor Fc1 and Fφ1 to make the following
equations,

Fc1/ Fφ1= (ci /tanφi)﹒(tanφcr/ ccr) (2)

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3316 Advances in Civil Engineering and Architecture

Then we introduce a dimensionless parameter λ as in Jiang’s work[6,7], whose function is

λ=c/(γhtanφ), after substitution of ccr and φcr in Eq.(2) by λ,

Fc1/ Fφ1= (ci /tanφi) /(γhλ) (3)

where, h is the height of slope.
It can be concluded from Eq.(3) that, if Fc1/ Fφ1=1, slopes with arbitrary ci and φi will output the
same potential slip surfaces, and the relationship of ci and φi is,

ci /(γh tanφi)= λ=const (4)

Furthermore, it can be concluded that if shear strength parameters ci and φi satisfy the relationship
of Eq.(4), the slopes with these shear strength parameters have the same potential slip surfaces.

Calculation model and parameters

A numerical model is built in plane strain mode by FLAC3D for homogeneous soil slope, shown in
Fig.1, with 20 m height, and 45° slope angle. The whole model is divided into three parts which
consists of 816 elements and 1176 grids, part I with 12×8 elements, part II with 40×8 elements, part III
with 40×10 elements. And the calculation model is built large enough to reduce the size effect, with
the length from slope toe to the left boundary of 30 m, length from slope vertex to the right boundary
of 55 m, and length from slope toe to the bottom boundary of 20 m which is equal to the slope height.
20

15
Case No
1
y (m)

10 2
3
4
5 5
6
0

-10 0 10 20 30 40 50
x(m)

Fig.1 Calculation model Fig.2 Location of potential slip surface

Soil parameters are, 25kN/m3 for unit weight, 10MPa for elastic modulus, 0.3 for poisson's ratio,
42kPa for cohesion, 17° for friction angle. Numerical model is fixed in both horizontal and vertical
direction on the bottom boundary, in horizontal direction on both sides, and the upper boundary is free
of fixity. The calculation convergence criterion is chosen to describe the state of slope. If slope comes
to the critical state, one part will occur the unlimited slipping when compared to other parts of slope.
Then, the whole slope is divided into two parts, slipping part and stable part, which can be described
by the displacement contour line. The contour lines are densely near the potential slip surface, and the
deformation inside the potential slip surface are greatly larger than those outside[8]. By compiling a
Fish program, the internal program in FLAC3D, the information of the potential slip surface can be
obtained. In order to validate the analytical solutions, c and φ are varied to form different calculation
cases, in which, ci=Kcc0, and tanφi=Kφtanφ0,where, Kc，Kφ are the variation coefficient of c and φ.

Result and discussion

In these cases, λ are kept as a constant, Kc=Kφ are varied in the range of 0.5~3.0, then the factors of
safety are obtained, shown in Table 1, potential slip surfaces in Fig.2, indicating that, with increase of
 Advanced Materials Research Vols. 243-249 3317

c and φ , the factor of safety increases at the same time. But due to λ is a constant, the potential slip
surfaces are the same, which is in accordance with the analytical solutions.
Kc is varied in the range of 0.1~3.2, Kφ are remained as a constant, the factor of safety F and λ are
obtained, shown in Table 2, and distribution of potential slip surfaces in Fig.3, showing that, λ
increases gradually with the constant φ and increasing c, which result in F varied correspondingly; the
failure mode of slope changes from shallow slip to deep slip, the potential slip surface becomes more
smoother, the volume of slipping becomes larger. When Kc=0.2~1.6, potential slip surface run
through the slope surface; when Kc=3.2~6.4, potential slip surface runs through the left horizontal
surface.
Table 1 Variation of factor of safety F and λ
Case No Kc Kφ λ F
1 0.5 0.5 0.27475 0.54269
2 1.0 1.0 0.27475 1.08658
3 1.5 1.5 0.27475 1.62933
4 2.0 2.0 0.27475 2.17323
5 2.5 2.5 0.27475 2.71598
6 3.0 3.0 0.27475 3.25873

20 20

15 15

10 10
Case No
y (m)
y (m)

Case No 1
5 1 5 2
2 3
3 4
0 0
4 5
5
-5 6 -5

-20 0 20 40 60 -20 0 20 40 60

x(m) x(m)

Fig.3 Location of potential slip surface Fig.4 Location of potential slip surface

Table 2 Variation of factor of safety F and λ

Case No Kc Kφ λ F
1 0.2 1.0 0.05495 0.5423
2 0.4 1.0 0.1099 0.69855
3 0.8 1.0 0.2198 0.96466
4 1.6 1.0 0.4396 1.4334
5 3.2 1.0 0.8792 2.2757
6 6.4 1.0 1.7584 3.8382

Kφ=0.2~3.2, Kc is kept as a constant, then λ decreases gradually. The factor of safety F and λ are
shown in Table 3, which shows that with the increase of φ, F increases gradually. The relationship of
potential slip surface and friction angle is shown in Fig.4, showing that with increase of φ , the failure
mode of slope changes from deep slipping to shallow slipping, the potential slip surface becomes
steeper.
3318 Advances in Civil Engineering and Architecture

Combined with the situation of discussions above, the following disciplines can be found that, the
potential slip surface is affected by the combination of c and φ, instead of a single one. The increasing
degree of c and decreasing degree of tanφ have the same impacts on the location of potential slip
surface; when φ=3.49°, potential slip surface run through the left horizontal surface; when
φ=6.97°~44.37°, potential slip surface run through the slope surface.

Table 3 Variation of factor of safety F and λ

Case No Kc Kφ λ F
1 1.0 0.2 1.37375 0.6279
2 1.0 0.4 0.686875 0.7568
3 1.0 0.8 0.343438 0.9746
4 1.0 1.6 0.171719 1.3418
5 1.0 3.2 0.085859 2.0283

Conclusions
(1) Any of strength parameter like cohesion or friction angle is changed, the factor of safety of slope
will change at the same time; but the potential slip surface is affected by the combination of c and φ ,
whose function is λ=c/(γhtanφ).
(2) If λ equals to a constant, the potential slip surfaces remain the same even the shear strength
parameters are changed. Increasing of λ lead to the failure mode of slope change from shallow
slipping to deep slipping, the potential slip surface moves far away from the slope surface. Decreasing
of λ lead to the potential slip surface comes closer to the slope surface.
Acknowledgements
This work was financially supported by the Forefront Research Program of Central South University
(2010QZZD001).
References

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Advances in Civil Engineering and Architecture
10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.243-249

Potential Slip Surfaces of Slope with Strength Parameters

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