Overview of limit-equilibrium methods for

slope stability analysis

Module 1
Aims of Slope Stability Analysis

• Assess equilibrium conditions

(natural slopes)
• Evaluate methods for stabilizing
slope
• Evaluate impact/role of geometric
and physical parameters on
stability
• Discontinuity strength
• Height
• Slope angle, etc.
Aims of Slope Stability Analysis

• Determine impact of seismic

shock on stability
• Back analyze for prevailing
conditions at failure
• Shear strength
• Groundwater conditions
Parametric Analysis

• Uncertainties regarding material

properties and physical
conditions
• Variability of properties from
location to location
• Difficulties in measurement
• Required to evaluate physical
and geometrical factors affecting
stability
Causes and controlling factors
• A section of a slope will generally fail when its driving forces overcome its
resistive forces.
• This is also known as Factor of Safety (FOS). Instability occurs when FOS <=1
• Occurs due to processes decreasing the resistive forces, increasing the driving forces, or a
combination of the two.
Failure Modes

• Slope failure modes/mechanisms

• Ways in which slide masses move
• Identifies critical failures that should be eliminated or minimized
• Used proactively to permit early design improvements and at less cost than is possible by reactive
correction of problems
Failure Modes

• Slides (dictated by unbalanced shear stress

along one or more surfaces)
• Rotational
• Translational
• Compound/Combination
• Planar
• Wedge
• Toppling
Failure Modes

• Rotational (rock and soil)

• Sliding along curved surface
• Common cause: erosion at base of slope
Failure Modes

• Rotational (rock and soil)

Failure Modes

• Translational
• Slides move in contact with underlying surface
• Sliding surface commonly a bedding plane, can also be fault/fracture surface

Block Slide Slab Slide

Failure Modes

• Planar (rock and soil)

Side Relief Planes

Upper Slope Surface

Slope Face

Failure Plane
Failure Modes

Wedge (rock)
• 2 discontinuities striking obliquely
across slope face
• Line of intersection daylights in slope
face
• Dip of line of
intersection > friction angle of
discontinuities
Failure Modes

• Toppling
• Rock can become unstable leading to
toppling tendencies due to gravity,
fluid pressure, or seismic forces
Failure Modes

• Wedge (rock) Active Wedge

Geologic factors controlling failure modes

Geologic Conditions Potential Failure Surface

Cohesionless soils
Residual or colluvial soils over shallow rock
Translational with small depth/length ratio
Stiff fissured clays and marine shales within upper,
highly weathered zone
Sliding block
Interbedded dipping rock or soil
Single planar surface
Faulted or slicken sided material
Intact stiff to hard cohesive soil
Sliding blocks in rocky masses
Weathered interbedded sedimentary rocks
Multiple planar surfaces
Clay shales and stiff fissured clays
Stratified soils
Thick residual and colluvial soil layers
Soft marine clays and shales Rotational (circular – slopes with homogeneous material,
Soil to firm cohesive non-circular – slopes of heterogeneous material)
Highly altered and weathered rocks
Limit Equilibrium Methods
Slide2
Slope Stability Analysis

• Components of analysis
• Slope geometry
• Geologic model
Slope Stability Analysis

• Components of analysis
• Slope geometry
• Geologic model
• Groundwater
Slope Stability Analysis

• Components of analysis
• Slope geometry
• Geologic model
• Groundwater
• Loadings on slope
Slope Stability Analysis

• Components of analysis
• Slope geometry
• Geologic model
• Groundwater
• Loadings on slope
• Failure criterion
• Failure analysis
Limit Equilibrium Analysis

Attraction of limit equilibrium

• Most common slope analysis method

• Relatively simple formulation
• Useful for evaluating sensitivity of possible failure conditions to input parameters
Limit Equilibrium Analysis

• Fundamental concepts
• All points along slip surface are on the verge of failure
• At this point in time
• Driving forces (D) = Resisting forces (R)
• Factor of safety (FS) = 1
• D > R then FS < 1
• D < R then FS > 1
• Limiting equilibrium:
• Perfect equilibrium between forces driving
the failure and those resisting the failure
Limit Equilibrium Analysis

Fundamental concepts

• Two steps for calculating factor of safety:

• Compute shear strength required along potential failure surface to maintain stability
• Compare required shear strength to available shear strength (which is obtained based
on shear strength criteria of the materials)

• For Mohr-Coulomb:
𝒄 𝝈 tan𝝋
𝝉𝒓𝒆𝒒𝒖𝒊𝒓𝒆𝒅 = +
𝑭𝑺 𝑭𝑺
Limit Equilibrium Analysis

• Planar failure of a Block on a Slope (Slip Surface)

cA tan 
FS = +
W sin a tan a

W sin a
W cos a

t
a W N
Limit Equilibrium Analysis

• Method of Vertical Slices:

The whole failure mass is divided
into several vertical slices

• Comparing to the previous Slide:

We have several
Blocks on a Slip Surface
Limit Equilibrium Analysis

Rotational failure – method of slices

• Used by most computer programs

• Readily accommodates complex slope

geometries, variable soil and groundwater
conditions, and variable external loads
Limit Equilibrium Analysis

Rotational failure – method of slices

n Normal forces on base
n slices
n Shear forces on base
n Lines of action (Zi)

n-1 Interslice normal forces

n-1 Interslice shear forces
n-1 Lines of action (Zh)
Zh 1 Factor of Safety

6n-2 Number of unknowns

Zi
Limit Equilibrium Analysis

Rotational failure – method of slices

n Moment of equilibrium of slice
n slices n Force equilibrium in X
ΣM = 0 n Force equilibrium in Y
ΣFx = 0
n Mohr-Coulomb relationship
ΣFy = 0
between shear strength and
normal effective stress

Zh
4n Total number of equations

Zi
Limit Equilibrium Analysis

Rotational failure – method of slices Common assumption

n slices
• Zi = ½ base length of slice
i.e., normal force on slice
base acts at midpoint of
base
• n – 2 unknowns remain to
make problem determinate
Zh • These (simplifying)
assumptions characterize
different slope stability
Zi Zi=d/2
methods
Limit Equilibrium Analysis

Slope stability analysis methods

• Ordinary (Fellenius)
• Bishop
• Janbu simplified
• Janbu corrected
• Lowe-Karafiath
• Corps of Engineers (I, II)
• Spencer
• Morgenstern-Price
• General Limit Equilibrium (GLE)
• Sarma (vertical slice)
• Sarma (non-vertical slice)
Limit Equilibrium Analysis

Methods of slices assumptions

• Bishop (1955) simplified

• Assumes interslice shear forces = 0
reduces numbers of unknowns by
(n-1)
• Moment eq. about centre and vertical
force eq. for each slice are satisfied
• Overdetermined solution (horizontal
force eq. not satisfied)
• Applicable to nonhomogeneous slopes
and where slip surface can be
approximated by a circle
Limit Equilibrium Analysis

Methods of slices assumptions

• Janbu simplified
• Assumes interslice shear forces = 0
(reduces # of unknowns by (n-1))
• Overall horizontal force eq. and
vertical force eq. for each slice
• Overdetermined solution
(moment equilibrium not satisfied)
• Applicable to virtually all slope
geometries and soil profiles
Limit Equilibrium Analysis

Methods of slices assumptions

• Spencer
• Assumes all interslice forces
inclined at constant, but unknown
angle
• Complete equilibrium satisfied
• An accurate procedure applicable
to virtually all slope geometries and
soil profiles. The simplest complete
equilibrium procedure.
Limit Equilibrium Analysis

Methods of slices assumptions

• Morgenstern-Price
• Similar to Spencer’s, it assumes all
interslice forces inclined at constant,
but unknown angle
• Inclination assumed to vary
according to “portion” of arbitrary
function
• Satisfies complete equilibrium
• An accurate procedure applicable to
virtually all slope geometries and soil
profiles. Rigorous, well-established
complete equilibrium procedure.
Limit Equilibrium Analysis

Methods of slices assumptions

• Sarma (1973)-Vertical Slices

• Some major differences with the
other methods as it solves for
seismic coefficient originally
• Similar to Spencer’s and
Morgenstern-Price, it satisfies
complete equilibrium
Limit Equilibrium Analysis

The assumptions regarding interslice

forces can be important:
• When the slip surface is forced to
change direction abruptly, due to
the geometry and properties of the
slope (a)
• For slopes with significant forces
due to reinforcement or external
loads whose directions are very
different from the usual direction of
the interslice forces (b, c)
Limit Equilibrium Analysis

Methods of slices

Force Equilibrium Moment

Method
Horizontal Vertical Equilibrium
Ordinary No No Yes
Bishop simplified No Yes Yes
Janbu simplified Yes Yes No
Lowe-Karafiath Yes Yes No
Corps of Engineers Yes Yes No
Spencer Yes Yes Yes
GLE (Morgenstern-Price) Yes Yes Yes
Sarma Yes Yes Yes
Slide3
Introduction

Three-dimensional limit equilibrium

slope stability analysis is simple in
concept, and directly analogous to 2D
methods:

• In 3D a sliding mass is discretized

into vertical columns with a square
cross-section instead of a vertical
slices in 2D
Simple 3D slope model with 3D spherical failure surface
Introduction

The 2D methods of slices can be extended to a 3D method of columns, where

forces and moments are solved in two orthogonal directions. Vertical forces
determine the normal and shear force on the base of each column.

(b) (c)
(a)
(a) Plan (top), (b) Side and (c) Front view of sliding mass discretized into square columns
Challenges in 3D Slope Stability Analysis

Obstacles in 3D method which are not encountered in 2D:

• Efficiently searching for unknown critical 3D slip surfaces
• Issues problematic in 2D are magnified in 3D (ex. dealing with tensile forces)

Open Pit Mine

Colored lines represent various trial 3D slip surfaces

Global Minimum Slip Surface with Shear Strength Contour Results

Limitations of Earlier Methods

Limitations of early numerical methods proposed for 3D limit equilibrium slope

stability computation:
• Assumed sliding direction
• Assumed plane of symmetry
• Transverse force and/or moment equilibrium not satisfied
• Local coordinate systems required
• Simple search methods for critical surfaces (e.g., spherical, planar)
• Satisfactory results for symmetrical 3D problems, but not for more complicated
asymmetrical slopes
• Often used for back analysis of known failures, rather than searching for critical
failure surfaces
 N, U = effective normal force and pore
pressure force on column base
S = mobilized shear force on column
Improved 3D Methods base
a = sliding direction
E = inter-column normal forces
• Significant improvements to 3D X = inter-column vertical shear forces
slope stability by Huang, Tsai and H = inter-column horizontal shear forces
P = vertical external force
Chen, (2002) and Cheng and Yip,
(2007):
• Force and moment equilibrium in 2
orthogonal directions
• Efficient solver for 3D equilibrium
equations
• Any failure criteria can be used (not
limited to Mohr-Coulomb)
Three-dimensional view of forces acting on column
 Improved 3D Methods
N, U = effective normal force and
pore pressure force on column
base
S = mobilized shear force on
column base
a = sliding direction
E = inter-column normal forces
Force equilibrium in x-y (horizontal) plane
X = inter-column vertical shear
forces
H = inter-column horizontal shear
forces
P = vertical external force

Horizontal force equilibrium in the y-direction Horizontal force equilibrium in the x-direction
for a typical column for a typical column
Improved 3D Methods

Unique sliding direction is solved for rather than assumed

Unique sliding direction for all columns (plan view)

Improved 3D Methods

• 3D system of equations is statically determinate

• The main equations used to obtain the 3D safety factor are summarized below
• NOTE:
• The X-Y plane is the horizontal plane
• The Z-axis is the vertical direction
• f1, f2, f3 and g1, g2, g3 are unit vectors in the direction of Si and Ni respectively
• λ are the intercolumn shear force mobilization factors
• Vertical force equilibrium (z-direction) of a single column. For the i th column:

• The base normal and shear stresses can then be expressed as:

• Where
Improved 3D Methods

Overall force equilibrium in x-direction gives:

Overall moment equilibrium in the x-direction gives:

where RX, RY, and RZ are lever arms to the moment point.

Overall force equilibrium in y-direction gives:

Overall moment equilibrium in the y-direction gives:

Improved 3D Methods

• Equations for directional factors of safety Fx, Fy, Fmx, Fmy can be
determined.
• We solve for limit equilibrium when Fx=Fy=Fmx=Fmy or rewritten:
• Fy-Fx=0
• Fmx-Fy=0
• Fmy-Fx=0
• We then find the values of F, λx , λy, a’ (sliding direction) that satisfy these 3
equations.
• The value of F is the overall 3D safety factor for a given 3D slip surface.
Improved 3D Methods

• Fast search methods for general 3D slip surfaces

• Powerful geometry modeling and data interpretation features

Anisotropic Strength 3D Dam Problem Open Pit Mine with Complex Soil Stratigraphy
References for 3D-LEM

Huang, C.C., Tsai, C.C., Chen, Y.H., 2002. Generalized method for three-
dimensional slope stability analysis. J. Geotech. Geoenviron. 128 (10), 836–
848.
Cheng, Y., Yip, C., 2007. Three-dimensional asymmetrical slope stability
analysis extension of Bishop's, Janbu's, and Morgenstern–Price's techniques. J.
Geotech. Geoenviron. 133 (12), 1544–1555.
Slope Stability References
End of Module