Inter-relations between experimental and computational aspects of slope stability analysis

Most conventional slope stability calculations are based on the linear Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion. However, a substantial amount of experimental evidence suggests that failure criteria of many soils are not linear particularly in the range of small normal stresses. This departure from linearity is significant for slope stability calculations since for a wide range of practical stability problems, critical slip surfaces are shallow and normal stresses acting on such surfaces are small. There exists a technical difficulty in performing strength measurements in the range of small normal stresses relevant to such slope stability problems. As a result, in many practical situations strength measurements are performed at much larger normal stresses then those relevant for the stability problem under consideration. When this is the case, use of the Mohr-Coulomb criterion amounts to a linear extrapolation of experimental information (obtained at large normal stresses), into the range of small normal stresses, which is relevant to the problem. This extrapolation results with very significant overestimation of calculated safety factors in cases when there is large mismatch between experimental and relevant ranges of normal stresses. The present work delineates the extent of this problem and suggests a practical way to overcome it. Copyright (C) 2003 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.