Slope Stability Analysis in 2D & 3D

Module II
Objectives
 Overview of Slide
 Model building (tips and pitfalls)
 Material behaviour models
 Interpretation of results
 Overview of Slide3
 3D Model building
 Importing Slide models
 Interpretation of results

Limit Equilibrium – © 2017 Rocscience Inc.

Slope Stability using Slide
Objectives
 Overview of Slide
 Features of
 Modeler Model
 Engine
 Interpreter Compute
 Special capabilities of Slide
Interpret

Limit Equilibrium – © 2017 Rocscience Inc.

 Modeler
 Creation of Models
 Loadings
 Distributed load
 Line load
 Geometry tools  Seismic load
 External boundary
 Material boundary
 Support systems
 Tension crack  Single support
 Pattern support
 Entity modification:
 move, delete, stretch

Limit Equilibrium – © 2017 Rocscience Inc.

 Modeler
 Surface  Properties
 Circular  Materials
 19 material strength models
 Supports
 Non-circular  7 support models
 Tension cracks

 Slope limits

 Edit

Limit Equilibrium – © 2017 Rocscience Inc.

Modeler
 Project settings
 General
 Failure direction
 Output data

 Methods
 11 stability analysis methods
 Analysis convergence options

Limit Equilibrium – © 2017 Rocscience Inc.

Modeler
 Project settings
 General
 Failure direction
 Output data

 Methods
 11 stability analysis methods
 Analysis convergence options

Limit Equilibrium – © 2017 Rocscience Inc.

Modeler
 Groundwater
 Finite element analysis
 Statistics
 Probabilistic analysis
 Sensitivity analysis
 Analysis type
 Global minimum,
 Overall slope
 Random Numbers

Limit Equilibrium – © 2017 Rocscience Inc.

Modeler
 Groundwater
 Finite element analysis
 Statistics
 Probabilistic analysis
 Sensitivity analysis
 Analysis type
 Global minimum,
 Overall slope
 Random Numbers

Limit Equilibrium – © 2017 Rocscience Inc.

Modeler
 Groundwater
 Finite element analysis
 Statistics
 Probabilistic analysis
 Sensitivity analysis
 Analysis type
 Global minimum,
 Overall slope
 Random Numbers

Limit Equilibrium – © 2017 Rocscience Inc.

Modeler
 FE groundwater analysis option  Statistical analysis option
 Mesh
 Materials
 Boundary conditions
 Supports
 Loads
 Seismic loads
 Water tables
 Tension cracks
 Discharge sections
 Material properties
 6 conductivity models

Limit Equilibrium – © 2017 Rocscience Inc.

Compute Engine
 Features
 Slope stability analysis engine
 Limit equilibrium methods
 Groundwater engine
 Finite element method

Limit Equilibrium – © 2017 Rocscience Inc.

 Interpreter
 Viewing and analyzing results
 View support forces
 Filtering options for factor of safety
 Method  View back analysis surface (supports)
 Groundwater
 Global
 Surfaces  Computed quantities
 Queries
 Queries  Flow lines
 Graph queries  Flow vectors
 Information on slices

Limit Equilibrium – © 2017 Rocscience Inc.

Interpreter
 Statistical analysis
 Cumulative plots
 Histogram plots
 Sensitivity plots
 Data export

Limit Equilibrium – © 2017 Rocscience Inc.

Data Interpretation Tools
 Visualization tools that facilitate results interpretation
 contour and line plots
 coloring of critical slip surfaces
 viewing of multiple plots

Limit Equilibrium – © 2017 Rocscience Inc.

Reporting Tools
 Drawings tools  Advanced printing features
 Static text, drawing tools  Customized report footer with your
 Dimensioning tools company logo

Limit Equilibrium – © 2017 Rocscience Inc.

Slope Stability Analysis – Example 1
 Basic modelling steps
 Create slope geometry
 Create material boundaries
 Assign materials and properties
 Define failure surfaces
 Circular surface
 Compute
 Interpret factor of safety results
 Open Example 1 Build a Model

Limit Equilibrium – © 2017 Rocscience Inc.

 Example I

Limit Equilibrium – © 2017 Rocscience Inc.

Example I
 Import the boundary geometry as a dxf
 Import External Boundaries
 Import Material Boundaries

Limit Equilibrium – © 2017 Rocscience Inc.

Example I
 Circular failure
Safety Factor
0.000
150

0.500

1.000

1.500

2.000

2.500
100

3.000

3.500 1.649
4.000

4.500
50

5.000

5.500

6.000+
0
-50
-100

-250 -200 -150 -100 -50 0 50 100 150 200

Limit Equilibrium – © 2017 Rocscience Inc.

Example I
 Slice Data

Limit Equilibrium – © 2017 Rocscience Inc.

Thrust Line
Thrust Line
 Represents location of (resultant) interslice forces
 Computed by summing moments of all forces acting on individual slice
about centre of slice base
 Two school of thought
 Solution most reasonable when line of thrust is within sliding mass to prevent
tension (Sharma et al, XSTABL)
 Nothing wrong with tension (Duncan, Bromhead)

Limit Equilibrium – © 2017 Rocscience Inc.

Thrust Line
With tension crack Without tension crack

Limit Equilibrium – © 2017 Rocscience Inc.

Eliminating Tension
Two Methods:
1. Tension crack defined in model.
2. Adjustment of Mohr failure envelope so that there is no shear
strength when the normal stress becomes negative.

Limit Equilibrium – © 2017 Rocscience Inc.

Tension Crack
 Tension crack terminates the slip surface at the edge of a slice at an
appropriate depth below the ground surface
 Depth can be estimated using:

Limit Equilibrium – © 2017 Rocscience Inc.

Tension Crack
 Should not extend beyond the depth of tension
 If the crack depth is overestimated, compressive forces will be
eliminated and the factor of safety will be overestimated
 Often, a tension crack has a minor effect on the computed factor of
safety
 Introducing a tension crack eliminates numerical instability issues and
negative stresses

Limit Equilibrium – © 2017 Rocscience Inc.

Determining Tension Crack Depth
 Perform a series of analyses, varying the depth of the crack
 FS will first decrease as the depth of the crack is increased and tension is
eliminated, then increases as the depth increases further and compressive
stresses are eliminated as well
 Cannot be used if the tension crack is filled with water because, due to the
water pressure, the force on the wall of the tension crack is always
compressive, and the deeper the crack, the lower the factor of safety.

Limit Equilibrium – © 2017 Rocscience Inc.

 Example – Tension
 Tension crack boundaries
 Tension crack depth
 Query slice data
 Thrust line
 Sensitivity analysis

Limit Equilibrium – © 2017 Rocscience Inc.

 No Tension Crack
 FS = 1.07
 Plot thrust line for Spencer method
 Thrust line extends outside of the sliding
mass near the top of the slope – this
generally indicates that tension is present

Limit Equilibrium – © 2017 Rocscience Inc.

 No Tension Crack
 Query Slice Data
 Third slice from the top shows
negative forces on one side and
positive forces on the other
 Slice represents the transition from
tensile to compressive interslice forces in
the sliding mass
 Depth to the bottom of the slice can give
a rough estimate of the depth of the
tension crack that is required to eliminate
the tension in the model – about 4.5 m

Limit Equilibrium – © 2017 Rocscience Inc.

 Adding a Tension Crack
 By default, the tension crack zone is
assumed to be saturated – represents
the worst case scenario (lowest factor
of safety)
 We want to use the actual water table
to define the crack saturation

Limit Equilibrium – © 2017 Rocscience Inc.

 With Tension Crack
 Key differences from example with no
tension crack
 Where the failure surface intersects the
tension crack boundary, a vertical tension
crack forms that extends to the ground
surface
 The line of thrust is completely inside the
failure surface, indicating that there is no
tension in the soil mass
 The factor of safety has decreased slightly
to about 0.79

Limit Equilibrium – © 2017 Rocscience Inc.

Soil Profile Modeling in Slide
Introduction to Soil Profile
 An extension of the geometry modeling capabilities of Slide
 Allows you to define a master profile of your material boundaries (e.g.
geological or soil profile) and ground surface.
 The profile is used as a base template, over which you can use the
regular boundary options (e.g. Add External, Add Material) to
superimpose different slope geometries (e.g. cut back a slope).
 Useful for models with relatively complex material layering, over which
you would like to define several different slope excavation scenarios
 Helpful to use a Soil Profile with Multi Scenario modeling

Limit Equilibrium – © 2017 Rocscience Inc.

Creating a Soil Profile Explicitly
 Define Profile Extents
 Define Boundaries using Add Soil Profile Boundary
 Assign Materials
 Assign Excavation to define ground surface

Limit Equilibrium – © 2017 Rocscience Inc.

Profile Workflow Tab

Limit Equilibrium – © 2017 Rocscience Inc.

 Geometry Workflow Tab

Limit Equilibrium – © 2017 Rocscience Inc.

Soil Profile from Borehole Data
 Define boreholes in Borehole Editor (Profile > Borehole Editor)
 Add borehole(s)
 Specify x- location and top elevation
 Specify material layers and layer thicknesses
 Specify borehole interpolation settings

Limit Equilibrium – © 2017 Rocscience Inc.

 Soil Profile from Borehole Data

Limit Equilibrium – © 2017 Rocscience Inc.

 Soil Profile from Borehole Data

Limit Equilibrium – © 2017 Rocscience Inc.

 Soil Profile from Borehole Data

Limit Equilibrium – © 2017 Rocscience Inc.

Soil Profile Modelling – Examples 2 & 3
 Basic modelling steps
 Create slope geometry
 Create material boundaries
 Assign materials and properties
 Define failure surfaces
 Circular surface
 Compute
 Interpret factor of safety results
 Example 2 – Open Example 2 Soil Profile
 Example 3 – Open Example 3 Borehole Editor

Limit Equilibrium – © 2017 Rocscience Inc.

Multi-Scenario Modeling in
Slide 7.0
 Multi Scenario Modeling
 Allows you to create, edit, and analyze
multiple variations of a Slide model, all
within a single document file
 All scenarios can be saved and
computed together with one click

Limit Equilibrium – © 2017 Rocscience Inc.

 Document Viewer
 Group – by definition, all Scenarios within a
Group have the same boundaries (e.g.
External and Material boundaries). If you
edit the boundaries for one scenario, the
edits will automatically propagate to all
scenarios in the same Group.
 Scenario – multiple Scenarios in a Group,
allow you to change input parameters for
each Scenario (e.g. material properties,
groundwater, support, search methods)
while maintaining constant geometry within
a particular Group.

Limit Equilibrium – © 2017 Rocscience Inc.

 Document Viewer
 There is no limit to the number of Groups or
Scenarios. You can create any number of
Scenarios per Group, and any number of
Groups.

 Each Scenario is really a separate Slide model.

 Groups are just folders that allow you to group

together multiple models (scenarios) that have
the same boundaries, or some other common
input parameter(s).

Limit Equilibrium – © 2017 Rocscience Inc.

Multi Scenario Modeling – Example 4
 Open Example 4 Multiple Scenarios
 Start with base tutorial file
 Change to Multi-Scenario model in Project Settings
 Duplicate Scenario 1
 Add load to appropriate Scenario
 Duplicate Group 1
 Change slope angle of Group 2
 Run analyses for Group 2
 View results for all 4 Scenarios

Limit Equilibrium – © 2017 Rocscience Inc.

Results for Slope Angle 41 degrees (Group 1)

Limit Equilibrium – © 2017 Rocscience Inc.

Results for Group 1 and Group 2

Slope Angle of Slope Angle of

41o 36o

Limit Equilibrium – © 2017 Rocscience Inc.

Slide3
3D Limit Equilibrium Slope Stability Analysis
 Overview
 Geometry
 Analysis Methods
 Slip Surfaces and Search Methods
 Loading and Support Options
 Groundwater Definition
 Material Models
 Data Interpretation
 Advanced Features

Limit Equilibrium – © 2017 Rocscience Inc.

 Geometry
 Full 3D based on our 3D finite element program RS3
version 2
3D model of open pit mine
 Geometry can be created from scratch or imported
from a variety of file formats
 Boundary surfaces can be interpolated from
borehole data using the Borehole Manager

 Import from Slide

 2D models can be created in Slide and imported
into Slide3. The 2D model will automatically be
converted into an equivalent 3D model. You can
then compare the results to see the effect of 2D
vs 3D.
Limit Equilibrium – © 2017 Rocscience Inc.
 Analysis Methods

 The following LE methods have been

adapted for 3D analysis:
 Bishop (moment equilibrium)
 Janbu (force equilibrium)
 Spencer (force and moment equilibrium)
 GLE (force and moment equilibrium with
interslice force function)

3D critical slip surface

Limit Equilibrium – © 2017 Rocscience Inc.

 Slip Surfaces & Search Methods

• The 3D slip surface

shapes which can
be generated are:
• Spherical
• Ellipsoidal
• Spline surface

Spherical slip surface Ellipsoid surface with Spline optimization

Limit Equilibrium – © 2017 Rocscience Inc.

 Slip Surfaces & Search Methods
 Traditional methods
 Grid Search
 Auto Refine
 Advanced methods optimized for
speed and efficiency
 Cuckoo search
 Particle swarm

 Slip surfaces can conform to the shape

of bedrock using an Infinite Strength Main: 2D view of slip surface sliding on bedrock
material (infinite strength material)
Top: 3D view of slip surface sliding on bedrock

Limit Equilibrium – © 2017 Rocscience Inc.

 Loading & Support Options
 Slide3 offers all support types found in
Slide
 End Anchored
 GeoTextile
 Grouted Tieback
 Grouted Tieback with Friction
 Micro Pile
 Soil Nail
 User Defined
 Support can be applied at any 3D
orientation Bolt pattern applied to slope face

Limit Equilibrium – © 2017 Rocscience Inc.

 Loading & Support Options

 Loading options include

 Point Loads
 Distributed Loads
 Seismic Loads

 Loads can be applied at any 3D

orientation or location

Uniform surcharge load at crest of curved slope section

Limit Equilibrium – © 2017 Rocscience Inc.

 Groundwater Definition

 Groundwater pore pressure can be

defined using
 Water surfaces (Water Table or
Piezo Line)
 Water Pressure Grids
 Ru coefficients

 Pore pressure grids from RS3 finite

element analysis can be imported into
Water table above ground surface at toe
Slide3 creates ponded water

Limit Equilibrium – © 2017 Rocscience Inc.

 Material Models
Slide3 offers a wide variety of strength
models for soil and rock:
 Mohr-Coulomb  Vertical Stress Ratio
 Undrained  Barton-Bandis
 Infinite Strength  Power Curve
 Anisotropic  Hyperbolic
Strength  Discrete Function
 Shear/Normal  Drained-Undrained
Function
 Generalized
 C/Phi Function Anisotropic The Generalized Anisotropic Strength option allows you
 Generalized Hoek- to create virtually any customized anisotropic material
 SHANSEP model incorporating multiple failure criteria applied
Brown
over user-defined 3D orientations.

Limit Equilibrium – © 2017 Rocscience Inc.

 Data Interpretation

 View 3D global minimum slip surface

 View all slip surfaces
 View contour plots of analysis data on
slip surface (e.g. stress, strength, pore
pressure)
 View safety maps on the surface of the
model or on cutting planes through
your model
Results of particle swarm search, ground
surface safety map

Limit Equilibrium – © 2017 Rocscience Inc.

 Advanced Features

 Excess Pore Pressure

 Rapid Drawdown Analysis
 Unsaturated Shear Strength
 Anisotropic regions
 Tension cracks

Limit Equilibrium – © 2017 Rocscience Inc.

Simple Methods to Importing and
Extruding Slide 2D Models
Slide3 Tutorial
Introduction
 The model analyzes the slope stability of a soil (yellow) with a weak
layer (green) to see the effect of geometry
 The factor of safety is affected by the turning corner and the loading force
Example 5 – Simple Slope with Weak Layer
 Base model with continuous loading
 Open Slide3
 Open Example 5 Simple Slope with Weak Layer for Slide3 import

200 m

95 m
Step 1: Importing the Soil Slope Profile
File > Import > Import Slide Project…
 In the tutorial 2 folder, open “Simple
Slope with Weak Layer.slim”. Select OK.
 In the Slide2D project import dialog,
change the Extrusion depth to 200 m to
extrude the Slide2D profile. Select OK.
 In the Slide2D Import Issues dialog,
parameters that cannot be easily
imported from Slide2D will appear. We
will modify these options in Slide3 later.
Step 2: Save the File
File > Save As…
 Save the project as a “Ex1 - Import.slide3dmodel”
Step 4: Checking the settings for loading
 Switch to Loading & Support Tab
 The loadings should be the same as
shown in the figure below
Step 5: Computing the model
Surface> Surface Options
 Under Search Method select “Options” and
“Conversion and Optimization” to expand the sections
 Make sure that the settings are the same as provided
in the figure and Select Ok.
File> Project Settings>Methods
 Uncheck “Bishop Simplified”, “GLE/Morgenstern-
Price” and “Janbu Simplified”. Check “Spencer”. Select
OK.

Note: The options will improve computation speed for

tutorial purposes.
Step 5: Computing the model
Compute> Compute
 It should only take 2 to 3 minutes to run
Step 6: Check Results
Interpret>Refresh Results
Interpret> Show/Hide Contours
 The results should now look like the one below
Base Normal Stress Contours
Example Model 2
 Base model with centered load

20 m
10 m

200 m

95 m
Step 1: Creating Example 2 File
 In the folder, Open Slide3 file “Ex1 - Import.slide3dmodel”
File>Save As…
 Save the File as “Ex2 - Imprint.slide3dmodel”
Step 2: Modifying Loading area
 Select “Face Load” in the Visibility pane and click on the
delete icon to delete the original applied load
 Switch to Geometry Tab
Geometry> Draw Tools> Draw Polyline
 Select “Freehand” and then enter the following
coordinates. Press [Enter] after every coordinate input:
[70,90,40] [80,90,40] [80,110,40] [70,110,40]
[70,90,40]
 Click to finish.
Step 3: Applying New Loading
 Switch to Loading & Support Tab
 On visibility plane, select both “Polyline 1” (the rectangle
we just drew) and “External” (the soil layer on the top)
Let’s generate a small region on the top of the slope to apply
a patch load.
Geometry> Draw Tools> Imprint Polyline on Geometry
Select the face of the imprinted polyline
Loading> Add Loads
 Select Uniform Load for “Load Type”, enter 50 for
Magnitude
select Local+z for “Orientation” and check “Flip”. Select
Apply.
Step 3: Applying New Loading
 The resulted model should look like below
Step 4: Computing the model
Compute> Compute
 It should only take several minutes to run
Step 5: Check Results
Interpret>Refresh Results
Interpret> Show/Hide Contours
 The results should now look like the one below
Base Normal Stress Contours
 Results Comparison
Base Normal Stress Contours

Slide2D result : Spencer FS 1.19

Slide3 Example 1: Spencer FS 1.39 Slide3 Example 2: Spencer FS 1.63

End of Module