11. THE STABILITY OF SLOPES - MSE - （11。）.pdf

11-1 11. THE STABILITY OF SLOPES 11.1 INTRODUCTION The quantitative determination of the stability of slopes is necessary in a number of engineering activities, such as: (a) the design of earth dams and embankments, (b) the analysis of stability of natural slopes, (c) analysis of the stability of excavated slopes, (d) analysis of deepseated failure of foundations and retaining walls. Quite a number of techniques are available for these analyses and in this chapter the more widely used techniques are discussed. Extensive reviews of stability analyses have been provided by Chowdhury (1978) and by Schuster and Krizek (1978). In order to provide some basic understanding of the nature of the calculations involved in slope stability analyses the case of stability of an infinitely long slope is initially introduced. 11.2 FACTORS OF SAFETY The factor of safety is commonly thought of as the ratio of the maximum load or stress that a soil can sustain to the actual load or stress that is applied. Referring to Fig. 11.1 the factor of safety F, with respect to strength, may be expressed as follows: τ ff F = (11.1) τ where τ is the maximum shear stress that the soil can sustain at the value of normal stress of σ , ff n τ is the actual shear stress applied to the soil. Equation 11.1 may be expressed in a slightly different form as follows: c σ tan φ n