Sensitivity Analysis Of Mechanical Parameters In Slope Stability Evaluation By Fem

Stability evaluation of geotechnical slope plays an important role not only in geotechnical engineering practice, but also in our economic development. Stability analyses are commonly performed by traditional limit equilibrium approaches in practice up-to-date. But it is noted that these traditional approaches are only used to simple slope. However, the finite element method broadly used in geotechnical engineering can deal with more complex slopes such as complicated slope geometry, advanced soil model and non-linear loads. Particularly, the strength reduction technique of finite element advocated in the thesis is further developed to evaluate slope stability. As a consequence, such strength reduction technique of the slope stability has been realized by ABAQUS. Several kinds of critical failure criterion are discussed. It is advised that the maximum horizontal displacement at some points in the slope is taken as a reduced coefficient for obtaining the critical failure state. The safety factor of the slope can be estimated by the distribution of the plastic strain. The position of sliding surface also can be computed by such a distribution. The safety factor by this method is fairly close to the result of the traditional limit equilibrium method. Then mechanical parameters affected to slope stability have been investigated. Moreover, it is also discussed that the several yield criterions in ABAQUS are related with their corresponding safety factors. Finally, a nailed slope is evaluated and optimized. Simulating results show that the protection net and the earth nail have prevented the slope from failing. The present results can benefited to geotechnical engineers and geophysicists.