STABILITY OF SIMPLE CUTTINGS IN NORMALLY CONSOLIDATED CLAYS

It is shown that the depth of the water table is an important variable in determining the factor of safety against undrained failure of slopes cut into ideal, saturated, normally consolidated clays where the undrained strength increases linearly with depth. The strength at the surface need not be zero. The other pertinent factors to be considered are the inclination of the slope, the ratio cjp′, the unit weight of the clay and, in cases where deep failure circles are possible, the depth ratio of more resistant layers. The Paper presents in graphical form the relationship between slope inclination and a stability number that facilitates computation of the factor of safety. © 1968, Thomas Telford Ltd. All rights reserved.