Bicol University

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
Legazpi City

TOPIC 5 – SLOPE STABILITY ANALYSIS

Unrestrained slope – an exposed ground surface that stands at an angle with the horizontal.
Slope – can be natural or man – made

Slope Stability Analysis – determining the safety of the natural slopes or man-made slopes and
involves determining the shear stress developed along the most likely rupture surface and
comparing it with the shear strength of the soil. The most likely rupture surface is the critical
surface that has the minimum factor of safety.

Figure 1: Schematic Diagram of Slope Failure

SOME TYPES OF SLOPE FAILURE

Slope failures depend on the soil type, soil stratification, groundwater, seepage, and the
slope geometry.

Translational Slide – failure of a slope Rotational Slide (Base Slide) –

along a weak zone of soil. The sliding common type of failure in
mass can travel long distance before homogeneous fine – grained soils. Base
coming to rest. This slide is common in slide occurs by an arc engulfing the
coarse-grained soils. whole slope.
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 Bicol University
COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
Legazpi City

Rotational Slide (Toe Slide) – the Rotational Slide (Slope Slide) – the
failure surface passes through the toe of failure surface passes through the slope.
the slope.

Flow Slide – occurs when internal and
external conditions force a soil to
behave like a viscous fluid and flow
down even shallow slopes, spreading
out in several directions.
Block Slide – occurs when a soil mass
is shattered along joints, seams, fissures
and weak zones by forces emanating
from adjacent soils. The shattered mass
moves as blocks and wedges down the
slope.

SOME CAUSES OF SLOPE FAILURE

Slope failures are caused by natural forces, human misjudgment and activities and
burrowing animals.

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COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
Legazpi City

1. Erosion
 Water and wind continuously erode man made slopes. Erosion changes the geometry of
the slopes, ultimately resulting in slope failure, or more aptly, a landslide. Rivers and
streams continuously scour their banks, undermining their natural or man-made slopes.

2. Rainfall
 Long periods of rainfall saturate, soften and erode soils. Water enters into existing cracks
and may weaken underlying soil layers, leading to failure like mudslides.

3. Earthquakes
 Earthquakes induced dynamic forces that reduce the shear strength and stiffness of the
soil.

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 Bicol University
COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
Legazpi City

4. Geological Features
 Many failures commonly result from unidentified geological features under a thick
deposit of stiff clay can easily overlooked in drilling operations. Sloping, stratified soils
are prone to translational slide along weak layers.

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

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

a. Excavated Slopes
 When excavation occurs, the total stresses are reduced and negative pore water pressures
are generated in the soil. With time the negative pore water pressure dissipates, causing a
decrease in effective stresses and consequently lowering the shear strength of the soil.

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 Bicol University
COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
Legazpi City

b. Fill Slopes
 Fill slopes are common in embankment construction. Fill is placed at the site and
compacted to specifications usually greater than 95% Proctor maximum dry unit weight.

7. Rapid Drawdown
 The lateral force provided by the water is removed and the excess pore water pressure
does not have enough time to dissipate. 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.

FACTOR OF SAFETY

a. Factor of Safety with respect to strength

In general,
where:
f
FS 
d τf= average shear strength of soil

c   tan  τd = average shear stress developed along the potential failure surface
FS 
cd   tan d
σ = normal stress on the potential failure surface

b. Factor of Safety with respect to cohesion

c
FS 
cd

c. Factor of Safety with respect to friction angle

tan 
FS 
tan  d

FS  FS c  FS 

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 Bicol University
COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
Legazpi City

When FS = 1.0, the slope is in the state of impending failure. Generally, a value of 1.5
for the factor of safety with respect to strength is acceptable for the design of a stable
slope.

INFINITE SLOPES

Infinite slopes have dimensions that extend over great distances. The assumption of an infinite slope
simplifies stability calculations. The soil strata may be varied but for the purpose of this discussion,
a homogeneous soil is assumed and the that failure surface is parallel to the slope face.

L/ cosβ
β

Figure 2: Analysis of infinite slope without seepage

a) Force Parallel to Plane Shear Stress

T LH sin 
T =Wsinβ d    H sin  cos 
A L
T = γLHsinβ
cos 

b) Force Perpendicular to Plane Normal Stress

N LH cos 
N = Wcosβ d    H cos2 
N = γLHcosβ A L
cos 
c) Shear Strength Equation

 d  cd   d tan  d

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COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
Legazpi City

Substitute equations from shear stress and normal stress:

H sin  cos   cd  H cos2  tan d

cd  H sin  cos   H cos2  tan d
 sin  
 H cos2    tan  d 
 cos  
 cos2  tan   tan d 
cd
H

cd
Stability number, m or m  From:
H
1 c tan 
 Stability factor FS  FS 
m cd tan  d
cd  H cos2  tan   tan d 
Substitute cd and tanφd:
c  tan  
 H cos2   tan   
FS  FS 
c  FS tan   tan  
 H cos2   
FS  FS 
c  H cos2  tan  FS   H cos2  tan 

d) Factor of Safety for c – φ Soil (Dry Soil)

c H cos2  tan 
FS  
H cos2  tan  H cos2  tan 

c tan 
FS  
H cos2  tan  tan 

e) If c = 0;

tan 
FS 
tan 

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COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
Legazpi City

f) Factor of Safety when Groundwater Table Coincides with the Ground Surface

c  ' tan 
FS  
 sat H cos2  tan   sat tan 

g) For FS = 1.0, what will be the equation for critical height (Hcr)?
c tan 
1 
H cr cos  tan  tan 
2

c
H cr 
 cos2  tan   tan  

FINITE SLOPES

Plane failure surfaces often occur when a soil deposit has specific plane of weakness. Methods of
analysis that consider blocks or wedges sliding along plane surfaces have been developed to analyze
cases where there is specific plane of weakness (Seed and Sultan).

Types of Stability Analysis Procedures

1. Mass Procedure
 The mass of the soil above the surface of sliding is taken as a unit
 Soil is assumed to be homogeneous

a. Friction Circle Method

b. Taylor’s Chart/ Stability Charts

Slopes with φ = 0 (Use Fig.4)

Note:

The minimum value of the factor of

safety thus obtained is the Factor of
Safety for the slope and the
corresponding circle is the critical
circle.

Figure 3: Stability of slopes in homogeneous

saturated clay soil (φ=0) 8
 Bicol University
COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
Legazpi City

Fellenius and Taylor Relationship:

cd = γHm (m  stability number)

m d
c H 1

H  cd m
if FS = 1.0  H = Hcr and cd = cu
cd  cu
H cr  H cr 
m m

Pointers:
1. For a slope angle, β> 53°, the critical circle is always a toe circle.
2. For β < 53°, the critical circle may be a toe , slope or midpoint circle, depending on
the location of the firm base under slope. This is called the depth function:

Vertical distance from top of slope to firm base

D = ------------------------------------------------------------------
Height of Slope

3. The maximum possible value of the stability number for failure at the midpoint circle
is 0.181.

(a)

(b)

Figure 4: (a) Definition of parameters for midpoint circle type of failure; (b) plot of 9
stability number against slope angle (Terzaghi and Peck)
 Bicol University
COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
Legazpi City

Slopes with φ > 0 (Use Fig.5)

 m  f  ,  ,  ,  
c
H cr

Figure 5: Plot of Stability number with slope angle

2. Method of Slices
 Soil above the surface of sliding is divided into a number of vertical parallel slices.
 The safety factor is defined as the ratio of resisting moment to the overturning moment.

Two commonly used methods of analysis

a. Ordinary Method of Slices (Fellenius Method)

The side forces on the individual slices were neglected in the initial development of
the method of slices. Each slice was considered to be in equilibrium under three
forces, the weight, the normal reaction and the tangential force. The resulting factor
of safety is conservative for soils where φ is greater than 0.

FS 
 cl n  Wn cos n tan  
W n sin  n
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COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
Legazpi City

(a) (b)

Figure 6: Stability analysis by ordinary method (Fellenius) of slice: (a) trial failure
surface; (b) forces acting on nth slice

b. Bishop’s Simplified Method of Slices

The ordinary method of slices satisfies only the overall moment equilibrium,
neglects the moment equilibrium of the individual slice, and only approximates the
force equilibrium of each slice. Methods of analysis that satisfies all these three
equilibrium conditions are necessarily more complicated and difficult to apply.
Bishop found that by including horizontal side forces to compute normal reactions
and also satisfying the overall moment equilibrium, the resulting safety factor was
only slightly less than that found by more rigorous methods.

tan  sin  n
mn  cos n 
FS

 cb  W tan   m
1
n n

FS  n

W sin  n n

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 Bicol University
COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
Legazpi City

Problems:

1. An infinite slope is shown. The shear strength parameters at the interface of soil and rock are
as follows: c = 18 kN/ sq.m and φ = 25°.
a) If H = 8.0m and β = 20°, find the factor of safety against sliding on the rock surface.
b) If β = 30°, find the height for which FS = 1.0. (assume pore water pressure to be zero)
c) What will be the factor of safety if water is located on the surface of the slope?

2. A saturated clay embankment has a height of 30 ft. A rock layer is located at a depth of 45 ft
measured from the top of the embankment. Given that the slope angle, β = 35°, cu = 1000
psf and γ = 120 lbs/ sq.ft, determine:
a) The factor of safety against sliding.
b) With the given soil properties, what will be the critical height?

3. A slope with β = 45° is to be constructed with a soil that has effective stress parameters of φ
= 20°, c = 23.95 kPa. The unit weight of the compacted soil will be 18.87 kN/ cu.m.
a) Find the critical height of the slope.
b) If the height of the slope is 10m, determine the factor of safety with respect to cohesion.

ACTIVITY No. 2

For the given slope, find the minimum factor of safety. Use the Fellenius (ordinary) method
of slices. Consider at least 5 slip circles.

14.0m

12.5m γ = 16 kN/m3
c = 20 kN/ m2
φ = 20°

Instructions: Submit your preparations in a LONG FOLDER (White/ Hard) and BOND
PAPER, computerized, and all values are tabulated clearly. Draw all the 5 slip circles
considered and put the calculated values of Factor of Safety for each circle.

Date of Submission: September 18, 2017

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