Geotechnical Engineering 2, CIVE1108

TOPIC 4
Slope Stability
Dilan Robert (PhD) & Abbas Mohajerani (PhD)

Textbook: Soil Mechanics and Foundations, Muni Budhu,3rd edition, 2011

Reference. Fundamentals of Geotechnical Engineering, Das B.M., Chapter 16

The materials used in these slides are copyright and are based on the above books with
copyright as outlined by the publishers in these books and other sources.
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Learning outcomes

• estimate the stability of slopes with simple

geometry and geological features
• describe the forces and activities that provoke
slope failures
• describe the effects of seepage and pore water
pressure on the stability of slopes.
• Calculate the factor of safety for slopes with
simple geometry.

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Importance of Slopes

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Importance

• Slopes in soils and rocks are abundant in nature and in

man-made structures.
• Natural forces (wind, water, snow, etc.) change the
topography on Earth and often create unstable slopes.
• Failures of natural slopes (land- slides) and man-made
slopes have resulted in much death and destruction,
economic losses, and environmental damage.

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Slope failure near a roadway

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Slope failure example

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Slope failure example

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Key terms

• Slip or failure zone is a thin zone of soil that reaches the critical state or
residual state, resulting in movement of the upper soil mass.
• Slip plane or failure plane or slip surface or failure surface is the surface of
sliding. Sliding mass is the mass of soil within the slip plane and the ground
surface.
• Slope angle is the angle of inclination of a slope to the horizontal. The slope
angle is sometimes referred to as a ratio, for example, 2:1 [horizontal
(H):vertical (V)].

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 Common types of slope failures

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 Common types of slope failures

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 Common types of slope failures

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CAUSES OF SLOPE FAILURE

• Erosion
• Rainfall
• Earthquakes
• Geological Features
• External Loading
• Construction Activities
• Fill Slopes
• Rapid Drawdown

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Erosion

Water and wind continuously erode natural and man-made slopes. Erosion changes
the geometry of the slope, ultimately resulting in slope failure or a landslide (Figure
a). Rivers and streams continuously scour their banks, undermining their natural or
man-made slopes ( Figure b)

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Rainfall

Long periods of rainfall saturate, soften, and erode soils. Water enters into
existing cracks and may weaken underlying soil layers, leading to failure, for
example, mud slides

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Earthquakes

Earthquakes induce dynamic forces especially dynamic shear forces that reduce the shear
strength and stiffness of the soil.
Porewater pressures in saturated coarse-grained soils could rise to a value equal to the total mean
stress and cause these soils to behave like viscous fluids—a phenomenon known as dynamic
liquefaction.
Structures founded on these soils would collapse; structures buried within them would rise. The
quickness (a few seconds) with which the dynamic forces are induced prevents even coarse-
grained soils from draining the excess porewater pressures.
Thus, failure in a seismic event often occurs under undrained condition.

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Geotechnical Features

Many failures commonly result from unidentified geological features.

A thin seam of silt (a few millimeters thick) under a thick deposit of stiff clay can
easily be overlooked in drilling operations, or one may be careless in assessing
borehole logs only to find later that the presence of the silt caused a catastrophic
failure. Sloping, stratified soils are prone to translational slide along weak layers. You
must pay particular attention to geological features in assessing slope stability.

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External Loading

Loads placed on the crest of a slope (the top of the slope) add to the
gravitational load and may cause slope failure. A load placed at the toe, called a
berm, will increase the stability of the slope. Berms are often used to remediate
problem slopes.

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Construction Activities

Construction activities near the toe of an existing slope can cause failure
because lateral resistance is removed.

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Fill Slopes

• Fill slopes are common in embankment construction. Fill (soil) is placed at

the site and compacted to specifications, usually greater than 95% Proctor
maximum dry unit weight.
• The soil is invariably unsaturated, and negative porewater pressures
develop. The soil on which the fill is placed, which we will call the foundation
soil, may or may not be saturated. If the foundation soil is saturated, then
positive porewater pressures will be generated from the weight of the fill and
the com-paction process.
• The effective stresses decrease, and consequently the shear strength
decreases. Thus, slope failures in fill slopes are most likely to occur during
or immediately after construction.

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Rapid Drawdown

Reservoirs can be subjected to rapid drawdown. In this case the lateral force
provided by the water is removed and the excess porewater pressure does not
have enough time to dissipate (Figure i). The net effect is that the slope can fail
under undrained condition.
If the water level in the reservoir remains at low levels and failure did not occur
under undrained condition, seepage of groundwater would occur and the
additional seepage forces could provoke failure (Figure j).
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The modes of slope failure:

The common modes of slope failure in soils are by:

• Translation
• Rotation.

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 Conceptual idea of slope stability

FR θ
Fp
FN
W
θ

Driving force = Fp = Wsinθ

Resisting force = FR = µWcosθ

If Fp > FR; Wooden block slides down the slope

Available Re sis tan ce FR

Factor of safety = =
Applied Stress Fp

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 Conceptual idea of slope stability

Seepage force
(Uf)

Slip Plane
FR θ
Fp
FN
W
θ

Driving force; Fp = Wsinθ, seepage force (Uf)

Resisting force; FR = µWcosθ , cohesion (c)
If (Fp+Uf) > (FR+c); Soil fails along the failure plane

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INFINITE SLOPES

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Stability of infinite slope

Long term stability (i.e. Effective stress analysis) – No seepage force;

Available Strength τ f σ n' tan φ ' N 'j tan φ ' W j' cos α s . tan φ '
Factor of safety = = = = =
Applied Stress τm τm τm W j' sin α s

tan φ '
Factor of safety ( FS ) =
tan α s

At equilibrium stage; FS=1 and hence, αs=φ’

Maximum slope angle of coarse grained soil can not exceed φ’

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Stability of infinite slope

Long term stability (i.e. Effective stress analysis) – With seepage force;

Available Strength τ f σ n' tan φ ' N 'j tan φ ' W j' cos α s . tan φ '
Factor of safety = = = = = '
Applied Stress τm τm τm W j sin α s + seepage load

seepage load = i.γ w .b j .z j = sin α s γ w .b j .z j & W j' = γ '.b j .z j

σ n' tan φ ' N j tan φ ' γ '.b j .z j cos α s . tan φ '

'
γ '.cos α s . tan φ '
Factor of safety = = = =
τm τm γ '.b j .z j . sin α s + γ w .b j .z j . sin α s (γ '+γ w ). sin α s

γ '. tan φ '

FS =
γ sat . tan α s
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 Stability of infinite slope

Long term stability (i.e. Effective stress analysis) – With seepage force;

γ '. tan φ '

tan α s =
At equilibrium stage; FS=1 and hence,
γ sat

As most soils; γ ' 1

≈
γ sat 2

Maximum slope angle of coarse grained soil in the presence of seepage is

approximately half of φ’

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Stability of infinite slope

Short term stability (i.e. Total stress analysis)

Available Strength su su su .b j su .b j
Factor of safety = = = = =
Applied Stress τm W sin α s
j
'
W sin α s . cos α s
j
'
γ .b j .z j . sin α s . cos α s
lj

su 2 su
Factor of safety ( FS ) = =
γ .z j . sin α s . cos α s γ .z j . sin (2α s )

1 2.su
At equilibrium stage; FS=1 and α s = sin −1  2.su γ .z  & z =
hence, 2   γ . sin( 2α )
2.su
Critical value (i.e. min or the depth failure initiates) of ‘z’ occurs when α=45o; z = zcr =
γ
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Rotational slope failures

We will continue to use the limit equilibrium method, but instead of a
planar slip surface of infinite extent we will assume circular (Figure a)
and noncircular (Figure b) slip surfaces of finite extent. We will
assume the presence of a phreatic surface within the sliding mass.

Simple

see CH 11 of
textbook

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Rotational slope failures

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Procedure for the method of slices

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Method of slices Bishop Method

Factor of Safety = FS:

FS =
∑ W (1 − r )} tan(φ′) m
j u j j
ESA
∑ W sin θ j j

See page 706 for the

procedure

u jb j
ru =
Wj
Pore water pressure ratio
TSA

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Example

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 Example

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Different methods available

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Slope stability for simple geometry

Taylor’s method bj

Wj
Assumes;
lj No seepage force
θj No Surcharge
No external loading
Using total stress analysis (TSA):
Available Strength su su su .l j
Factor of safety = = = = where b = l cos θ
Applied Stress τm W j sin θ j W j sin θ j
lj
bj
∑(su ) j .
cos θ j
FS =
∑ W j sin θ j

∑(su ) f
Taylor proposed; FS = N o where N o = Stability Number (depends on geometry )
∑(γz ) f

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Taylor method Cntd…

∑(su ) f
FS = N o
∑(γz ) f

FS .γH o
No =
su

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Taylor’s method Procedure

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Slope stability for simple geometry
Bishop-Morgenstern method
For homogeneous soil slopes with simple geometry using Bishop’s simplified
method;
FS = m − nru

Where;

γ w (z w ) j
ru = Weighted average of
γ jzj

m, n = stability coefficients

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Bishop–Morgenstern Method

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Factor of safety (FS)

It is difficult to specify a particular FS for slopes because it is

dependent on many factors, including the geological conditions,
types and density of existing and anticipated structures,
reliability of soil parameters, groundwater and environmental
conditions, and natural hazards. Consequently, the decision on
what factor of safety to use is subjective. The usual range of
factor of safety is 1.15 to 1.5. In the mining industry, tailing
dams are designed with FS about 1.1 to 1.2.

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